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1 IrwinsJournal.com Presents: The Unofficial Micro-Trains Release Report Issue #227 November, 2015 (Not affiliated with Micro-Trains Line, Inc.) Copyright 2015, George J. Irwin. Reproduction prohibited. Please see legal notice at the end of this document. Hello again everyone! Let s get right to our look behind the red and yellow sign which, as cautioned last month, is arriving later than usual N SCALE NEW RELEASES: , $29.70 Road Number: 1603 (will be B&O 1603 in website listings). 40 Foot Steel Boxcar, Single Youngstown Door, Baltimore & Ohio. Box express passenger train scheme. Blue roof, black ends and side ladders. Blue and gray sides with yellow band. Small yellow B&O Capitol Dome herald on right and road number on lower left. Approximate Time Period: mid-1960s to early 1970s. Last month, while I was blundering my way through an attempted pre-review of the Z Scale Streamlined Passenger Cars in Baltimore and Ohio paint, I happened across this very boxcar in the B&O Color Guide to Freight and Passenger Equipment and wondered whether we would see it from Micro-Trains at some point. I guess I know the answer! So let s return to the Color Guide, Page 10, for the bingo on that car. MTL gives 1934 as the original build date, and specifies American Car & Foundry as the builder. In the Color Guide Pullman is named as the builder, again in 1934 however. The short series of box express cars 1600 to 1604 were previously part of the Chesapeake & Ohio series 220 to 225 and moved to the B&O in the mid-1960s. The three-quarter view of the side and B or brake wheel end of the 1603 reveals a radial roof, definitely a delta to the 020 body style, plus a few details specific to boxcars that are equipped for use in passenger train service that I don t think can be reasonably expected to be included. (But there are always detail parts.) For example, quoting from the Color Guide: When in express service, box cars have an additional hand rail and strap step at the doorway. As they are technically passenger equipment, these cars aren t in the Official Railway Equipment Register (ORER). The photo in the Color Guide is from 1971 and shows the car s road number lined out, which usually means that the car is out of service and probably on the way to retirement and the scrap yard. The mid-1971 photo date takes place right after Amtrak s takeover of most intercity passenger service so it makes sense that this car would no longer be needed. Coupled with the stated mid-sixties move of the car from the C&O to the B&O, we have the ATP. For a little more variety, I note that sister car 1600 is pictured in the Color Guide with Commonwealth Express Trucks. 1

2 , $27.60 Reporting Marks: WM Foot Steel Boxcar, Double Youngstown Doors, Western Maryland. Brown (light boxcar red) including trucks and couplers. White lettering including reporting marks at bottom left and speed lettering roadname across top of side including the doors. Yellow band at top of ends with black reporting marks. Approximate Time Period: 1961 to early 1970s. It s been a while since I ve had to check the WM Color Guide to Freight and Passenger Equipment. There is a photo of the 31060, just one number away from the one which MTL chose to depict. It ll have to do. Photographed in Hagerstown in the WM s home state of Maryland, the car is caught in a three-quarter view which shows off the yellow band at the top of the ends. The stripes that bookend the roadname go right across the ladders. This is replicated on the car and illustrates how unusual roller bearing trucks were at the time. However, there s a door thing of a different kind than we usually see here. The MTL 034 body style has two eight-foot doors. In the Color Guide, it s noted that prototype had a six and an eight foot door but we ll come back to that. There is a mismatch in the way the roadname is applied: on the real car, there was only room for the R and N in WESTERN on the less wide door, while Micro-Trains needed to fit the E R and N. Meanwhile, there s no lettering on the wider right hand door. It looks to me like the net impact is to cause the letters to be spaced farther apart on the MTL car than they were on the real boxcar. The ends are also different than that on the 034 body style. As usual, the degree to which this makes this offering a stand in is up to the individual modeler. I doubt that we ll see an exact model of this particular car in N Scale, except perhaps in 3-D printing. It s noted in the Color Guide that these cars, the WM s Class B-21, were built by Pullman- Standard in November Since there were only 15 in the set, I presume they were all constructed in the same month. The July 1963 ORER shows the group to 31065, described as simply Box with AAR Designation XM. The inside length was 50 feet 6 inches, inside height 10 feet 5 inches, outside length 51 feet 10 inches, extreme height 15 feet, capacity 4932 cubic feet or 100,000 pounds. Hold on, though: the door opening is shown as 15 feet. That would make the Color Guide caption incorrect, since a six foot door and an eight foot door cover only 14 feet worth of opening. We have a tie-breaker though: I found a Chessie System equipment diagram from 1976 over on the site alphabetroute.com. The Chessie classification for the WM B-21 series was B-117. This official diagram shows a 15 foot clear door opening. I think that means that the door arrangement was 6+9 feet, not 6+8 as captioned in the Color Guide. There s a prototype photo at of guess what the WM again without its running board and with Chessie System paint as of an unknown date, which clearly shows different width doors. That would end the ATP, but we don t know exactly when. Well, that s why it s an Approximate Time Period 2

3 , $29.95 Reporting Marks: NADX Foot Wood Double Sheathed Refrigerator Car, Truss Rod Underframe, Vertical Brake Staff, Baby Ruth Series #6. Yellow sides, brown roof and ends, black underframe and door details. Black reporting marks and dimensional data on left. Multicolor rendition of three candy bars: Buy Jiminy, Butterfinger and Dip on left, and red and white rendition of Baby Ruth bar on right. White lettering on ends. Approximate Time Period: 1930 (based on service date on car ) to mid-1930s. Back to Billboard Refrigerator Cars we go, specifically Page 61 which is also where the crooked arrow Baby Ruth car (Series #3, August) is pictured. Authors Hendrickson and Kaminski noted that NADX 4791 was similar to the 4500-series cars shown, with a truss rod underframe. With one exception, the lettering is identical to the model. That omission appears to be the Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval on the Baby Ruth bar. That would have required a lot more permission for Micro-Trains to obtain! Yes, the magazine Good Housekeeping does presently award those Seals of Approval, if you re curious. This time I m going to go with the service date of 1930 for the start of the ATP, not the build date of 1918 which is also on the car. There are two reasons for this: first, and more obviously, the car s construction date is before the introduction of any of the candies depicted on it; second, leased refrigerator cars were frequently repainted for another lessee when serviced. We do not know for sure that this was the case with this car, but I think it s a pretty safe bet. The ORER for February 1931 shows the North American Car Company s series NADX 4700 to 4799 with 85 of the possible 100 cars included. The inside length was 29 feet ½ inch, inside width 8 feet 4 inches, and inside height 7 feet 6 inches. The outside dimensions weren t given, nor was the door opening. The capacity for lading was 1817 cubic feet or 55,000 pounds. Add to that 188 cubic feet or 6956 pounds of chunk ice. One ORER lookup should suffice here since the ATP of this car ends with the outlawing of billboard freight cars. Since there are four brands of candy on this car, let s take the opportunity to look at the other three that are not Baby Ruth. Butterfinger is still produced; it moved over to Nestlé with Baby Ruth when that company purchased what was the Curtiss Company in 1990 from RJR Nabisco. Butterfinger was introduced in 1923, just two years after Kandy Kake was changed to Baby Ruth. It s a peanut butter-flavored center covered with chocolate, or, according to Nestlé itself, a unique combination of crispety, crunchety, peanut-buttery taste and texture Freshly roasted peanuts are chopped and made into a creamy peanut butter that is blended with a sugar candy. This unique substance is kneaded, rolled, cut and covered in a chocolatey coating. The two other candies are Fallen Flags. The first reference I found to them was a Chicago Tribune article titled When Candy Was Dandy (October 20, 2013). Mention of Curtiss founder Otto Schnering was made, along with Dip, described as a chocolate-covered soft nougat bar, similar to today s Three Musketeers, and Buy Jiminy, called a peanut bar similar to PayDay. 3

4 and , $32.35 each Reporting Marks: SP and Foot General Service Tank Cars, Southern Pacific. Black with white lettering including reporting marks on left and roadname on right. Double panel consolidated stencil to lower right of roadname. Approximate Time Period: 1974 (build date) to at least There are three examples from which to choose of the prototype series SP to in the Southern Pacific Color Guide to Freight and Passenger Equipment Volume 2 by James Kincaid. None of them- the 67317, and 67318, pictured on Pages 5 and 6 of the volume, were selected as the road numbers MTL offers, but given that there is at least one big-time SP follower on the MTL staff (Hi, Joe D Amato!) I m sure there is plenty of reference material available for the team over in Talent. The MTL 110 body style makes for a good representation of what was the SP s O class of tank cars. The only quibbles I have are relatively minor: there s a brake cylinder on the small platform, diagonally opposite the brake wheel; there s an American Car & Foundry acf trademark below the I in Pacific and there should probably be an ACI label. All of these items can be addressed if desired. The photos in the Color Guide were taken in 1979, 1977 and 1979 respectively. Meanwhile, over on Lee Gautreaux's Railgoat site ( ) there are more photos of this class including bingos on both numbers MTL chose, as found by John Mosbarger in March 1993 in Dunsmuir, California. The other photos are as recent as Gautreaux also notes that The class is stenciled on the [truck] bolster as CLASS O It is the only instance I know of where the word CLASS was included. He adds, One of these cars was chosen as the prototype for a fuel tender program to be used with selected GP40-2 locomotive. It was painted in SP grey/red locomotive colors and numbered SP 700. Micro-Trains did that particular car in 2007 (Catalog Number ). I ve noted before that the SP is one of the few railroads that lists its tank cars in the ORER, even if they are largely in company service. This group is no exception: they re in the April 1975 edition as series SP to 67349, with a capacity of 240,000 gallons or 200,000 pounds. The description includes Lube Oil and that s most likely what they carried around the expansive Southern Pacific system. As of April 1999 s Register there were 45 cars in the expanded group SP to under the Union Pacific listing. The last ORER in which I have any listed is January 2002, where 44 cars remain. That s down to zero in the October 2004 issue which means either a relatively tight estimation of the end of the ATP or that parent UP simply removed the cars from the ORER listing. 4

5 , $34.90 Road Number: 490 (will be B&O 490 in website listings). 70 Foot Heavyweight Baggage Car, Baltimore and Ohio. Blue and gray sides; black ends, roof, underframe and details. Gold striping lettering including roadname off-center in letterboard and road number at bottom center. Approximate Time Period: early 1950s to early 1960s at least, but see text. Thanks to Jerry Laboda s Passenger Cars Photo Index ( passcarphotos.info ) we ve got sort of a bingo: the 490 as it appeared in Pullman green paint. It s the former Buffalo, Rochester and Pittsburgh 31, a express car rebuilt from a baggage car. As it appears in the black and white photo posted on Northeast Rails ( ) it s a fair bit different from the MTL 147 body style, from the roof to the doors to the underframe. So stand in we have once again. It s also noted that this car was in the B&O class B25. The Buffalo, Rochester and Pittsburgh was purchased by the B&O in 1932, so it s not surprising that The Official Register of Passenger Train Equipment (ORPTE) for March 1943 includes this car. It s part of the small series B&O 486 to 499, of fourteen 66 foot cars. The ORPTE for January 1953 has the same fourteen cars listed. The 1953 edition adds the length over the buffers, at 69 feet 6 inches, close enough to the 70 foot length of the MTL car. The cars had a mileage rate of 6.7 cents plus a per diem of 13 dollars and 30 cents at that time. We previously learned that the B&O s famous blue and gray paint scheme depicted here wasn t fully adopted until 1953, so I ll assume that these cars were all still around then. I ll further assume that since this painting took some time, we are good with the start of the ATP in the early 1950s and the end in the early 1960s when the paint scheme was moved to the C&O colors. I didn t have any luck finding the unusual offset roadname, but the folks on Trainboard did, pointing to a photo of a car in that scheme as found in Kent, Ohio in December 1980 (according to the filename, anyway). The car shown in the photo has three doors, not two so it doesn t match either the MTL 147 body style or the actual B&O 490. MTL also pointed me to the same photo as evidence that on at least that one car, the roadname really was pushed that far off-center. It was noted to me that if anyone has photo evidence of another baggage car in the blue and gray scheme with a centered roadname, MTL would be pleased to consider it for another release. 5

6 , $29.95 Reporting Marks: SP Heavyweight Mail/Baggage Car, Southern Pacific. Gray with black roof and underframe. White lettering including roadname offcenter on letterboard (photo at right is the other side of the car), United States Mail/Railway Post Office below RPO section windows and reporting marks at bottom center. Approximate Time Period: about 1958 to 1967, but see text. OK, where did I misplace that list of Southern Pacific passenger car paint schemes? I know it s around here somewhere Well, while I look for it, I ll mention that the Golden Gate Railroad Museum (over at ) has a description of its car SP 5131, but includes in that description a photo of the SP 5130 which it credits to the Southern Pacific Historical & Technical Society. And that s certainly an offbeat path to a bingo. Before going on, I took a detour to confirm that the 5130 and 5131 belong to the same class of cars and that does appear to be the case, though I see both 70-BP-30-1 and 83-BP-30-1 as that class depending on where I look. Given that, I think it s safe to quote the GGRM notes on the 5131: The car was delivered in 1923 by Standard Steel Car Company based on an order placed by the SP on March 22, Originally weighing 128,350 pounds, the car contained a 40-foot baggage section and 30-foot postal section. The cars numbered 5129 to 5137 were the initial members of this class. The definitive reference is the SPH&TS book Southern Pacific Passenger Cars Volume 3: Head End Equipment. The prototype car had a Harriman style roof, a baggage door that didn t come up to the top of the side, drip guards over the baggage and RPO doors, and a different number and configuration of the windows in the mail section. The delta between the baggage door on the MTL 148 body style and the actual door used forces the roadname off-center on the Micro-Trains car. This will mean stand in for some and for completeness for others. Ah, and here is that paint schemes list. It was compiled by Jim Lancaster and posted on Richard Percy s site ( espee.railfan.net/passenger-paint.html ). In 1958 the SP began to paint all head-end cars a solid Lark gray, replacing other schemes including the original dark olive green that was likely the as delivered paint for this group. According to the Modeling the SP website, the railroad did not run any RPOs after 1967, so I ve called the ATP there. It could have been earlier, though, as the Golden Gate Railroad Museum s 5131 was transferred to maintenance of way service in 1957, before the all gray scheme became official. 6

7 In addition to the above, the Southern Pacific SW1500 diesel locomotives ( and , $ each) are now available. UMTRR coverage was in the June 2015 issue when preorders were announced. The road numbers for these units are 2638 and They have Southern Pacific- specific details and are in the Speed Lettering scheme with the Approximate Time Period of no earlier than 1988 into the 1990s. Please see MTL Announcements for more news on the SW1500 series in general. Also, the Royal American Shows Three- Pack ( , $89.95) of Heavyweight 12-1 Sleepers was to be available midmonth and should be at Micro-Trains dealers as you read this. UMTRR coverage was in the July 2015 issue. The individual catalog and road numbers are as follows: , 53; , 54; and , 55. These catalog numbers are a little different than usual since they pick up from the previous Royal American Set. N SCALE REPRINTS: , $24.60 each Reporting Marks: CB&Q Foot Despatch Stock Car, Burlington (Chicago, Burlington and Quincy). Brown with white lettering including reporting marks on left and slogan on placard on door ( Everywhere West on one side, Way of the Zephyrs on the other side, see photo at right). Black and white Burlington Route herald on right. Approximate Time Period: 1937 or 1938 into the 1970s. Previous Releases: As Catalog Number 35130, Road Number 52002, August 1992; Road Number 52145, April The CB&Q Color Guide to Freight and Passenger Equipment, Page 73 provides information for this car. The was one of 150 cars in the CB&Q s class SM-19. They were numbered to and built at the railroad s own shops in Galesburg, Illinois, during 1937 and According to the Color Guide, illustrated by the photo of CB&Q 52018, These cars featured steel-framed wooden ends, metal-covered radial roofs, wooden roofwalks and steel 7

8 underframes The slats on the upper portion of the doors were filled in to allow for the Everywhere West slogan. Note that mention isn t made of the Way of the Zephyrs slogan in the Color Guide caption. That does not mean it wasn t used. The go-to source not in the UMTRR Research Accumulation is probably Burlington Bulletin #25, published by the Burlington Route Historical Society which contains 136 pages of history, photos, drawings, roster of all Burlington stock cars and associated facilities, including drovers cars and passenger service horse cars. Hmm, the MTL folks might want to look at that for their upcoming horse car release but I digress The Color Guide photo also shows a car that doesn t look very much like the MTL 035 body style. Broken record alert: that N Scale model is based on a New York Central prototype which itself didn t look much like any other stock cars out there. For that matter, I can t come up with any widely available N Scale model that comes close to the SM-19 prototype. The addition of the placard for the slogans makes this release a Not A Reprint by my criteria. The ORER for January 1940 shows all 150 cars in the group. The inside length was 40 feet 6 inches, inside width 8 feet 8 inches, inside height 9 feet, outside length 42 feet 3 inches, extreme height 13 feet 11 inches, door opening 5 feet and capacity 3159 cubic feet or 80,000 pounds. Jumping to the January 1959 Register, multiple groups are combined into one series numbered to 53199, with 842 cars. The description at that time was Stock, Single Deck, Steel Underframe, Steel Frame. This included the SM-19A cars constructed in 1944 and 1945, and the SM-19B cars built in 1949, which were the final forty foot stock cars that the Burlington built. For shipping purposes these cars would have been functionally identical, and they were dimensionally the same as well, so no worries putting them together in a single line in the ORER. The photo of the which appears in the Color Guide was taken on March 1, 1970, the very last day of the official existence of the CB&Q before it was merged into the Burlington Northern. It remained in its mineral red scheme and didn t look too bad for about a thirtyfive year old car. Since I knew that the photo was from 1970 I checked that initial Burlington Northern listing is the April 1970 ORER. I was surprised to see that 803 cars remained, down less than five percent from the January 1959 total. Somewhere along the line an end note had been added: Cars may be furnished equipped with temporary upper deck on application to agent. In the April 1975 Register, 662 cars were still in service, and there were 329 as of the July 1980 ORER as well. My guess is that these were primarily if not exclusively the later SM-19A and SM-19B cars, but just in case that guess was wrong, I tracked the series all the way to the end of its Equipment Register listings, which, for the record, was not much later: sometime between April 1981 and April Over on the site RRPictureArchives.net there are two photos from 1981 of a very beat up CB&Q 52117, missing its door placards entirely and white-lined meaning that it s out of service. 8

9 N SCALE WEATHERED RELEASES: The following items were announced as mid-month releases via the Micro-Trains website, the MTL Facebook page, and via the Micro-Trains E- Line, all on or about November , $64.95 Reporting Marks: EEC 5529 and Aware Two-Pack of 50 Foot Steel Exterior Post Boxcars, Single Youngstown Door, First Coast Railroad. Both cars are brown with graffiti side in black with extensive graffiti. The 5529 has a gasoline can and lighter and the 3534 has a liquor bottle with flaming wick. Approximate Time Period: as early as Individual catalog numbers will be posted to the UMTRR website. Well, the East Erie Commercial Railroad seems to be a prime target for graffiti. I suppose that s an unintended consequence of minimalist lettering, although I doubt that is a consideration for many who, ahem, indulge in this sort of work. I ll be the first to admit that I don t get this Aware idea, and I m not sure of what the intended message is here, if there is one, or whether it s positive. There s also an Aware chainsaw boxcar (what?) and a series of cars on which there are small headshot portraits painted in black and white, also with the caption Aware. Does this all connect? I don t know. I do know, from the RRPictureArchive references thoughtfully provided by MTL, that the 3534 started as Railbox RBOX 18194, then became ATSF 51880, and then St. Lawrence and Atlantic SLR The MTL 025 series is a model of the FMC 5077 x-post boxcar, and the was part of the Railbox series , their class XFF10 constructed from September 1975 to February 1976, which were FMC-built 5077 cubic foot cars. So we have a match there. The earliest photo of the 3534 with the Aware bottle is from October 2014 and the latest is from the last day of July 2015 so we re probably to present on that one. EEC 5529 started as North Louisiana and Gulf NLG 5290, became Chiapas Railroad (Compania de Ferrocarriles Chiapas) FCCM down in Mexico and then Golden Triangle GTRA 4116 before moving to the East Erie Commercial. That car is a 5347 cubic foot car built in 1977 and originally painted green with white lettering. The prototype isn t an exact match to the MTL body style. The Aware graffiti appeared as early as November 2013, when the car was caught on a RIP (Repair in Place) track on the Union Pacific in Houston. The two photos of the car in plain dip brown paint, one in 2008 and one in 2009, show two different door types, on opposite sides of the car, once again lending credence to the idea that the aim is to get cars out earning revenue regardless of what they looked like. While MTL is selling this as a Two-Pack I m not sure that these are connected other than perhaps being by the same artist (some would say perpetrator and I wouldn t blame them). But this isn t like the Creation of Adam two-pack from mid-july, and the ATP of the cars 9

10 might not be identical. there is always Rule #1. On the other hand, what s a year or two either way, and of course , $27.85 Reporting Marks: B&O Foot Steel Two Bay Open Hoppers, Offset Sides, Flat Ends, Baltimore & Ohio / Chessie System. Black with mostly yellow lettering including Chessie System roadname at top left, large reporting marks on left, and large Ches-C herald on right. Black and white double panel consolidated stencils right of center. Simulated coal load included. Light (if any!) weathering and cat face added to the Ches-C herald. Approximate Time Period: generally, early 1970s or early 1980s (1982 service date on car) to mid-1980s. Previous Releases (unweathered): Road Numbers and OK, who s the wise guy? Before answering that question, let s recap from the April coverage of the clean paired release. One of that virtual two-pack, B&O , was pictured on Page 7 of the Chessie System Color Guide to Freight Equipment, where it was noted that a larger number of two bay hoppers received the Ches-C than you might think. The ORER for April At that time there were 737 cars in the series B&O to , with inside length 33 feet, outside length 36 feet 6 inches, extreme height 11 feet, and capacity 2260 cubic feet level full or 134,000 pounds. By April 1984 the car count was down to 203 and the capacity had been reduced to 120,000 pounds, probably in acknowledgement of the cars age. Only 46 cars remained in the October 1986 Equipment Register. Now, who s the wise guy? I suspect that there are several wise guys, actually, as I recall seeing a Ches-C with added eyes, nose and smile live and in person, and having a laugh out loud moment. I also dimly recall seeing a photo online or in print somewhere and of course, I ll be darned if I can dig it out now. The search phrase Chessie cat graffiti is not very productive. I ll keep the ATP from the previous release but I suspect that the folks at the paint shop, who were rather proud of their mascot, would have removed the extra decoration far faster than is the case at the present time. In addition to the above, the following is in pre-order at present and is NOT currently available. Scheduled delivery is as noted below. UMTRR coverage is being provided ahead of the actual release in order to facilitate pre-order decisions; pre-orders close November 30. Scheduled Delivery April 2016: , $ Weathered TTX Wind Turbine 3- Pack. Preliminary Reporting Marks: TTYX , and Will consist of three 071 body style 89 foot flat cars in the current TTX 10

11 (Trailer Train) scheme (road numbers and individual catalog numbers to be confirmed) of yellow with white reporting marks on black panel on left and red TTX on right. Weathering of deck and sides in various shades of brown. Also includes two simulated wind turbine blades with blade supports, assembly required. Approximate Time Period: The present. Preliminary artwork shown; actual product may differ. I don t mind being able to do a copy and paste here from the two previous Wind Turbine Sets, well, as long as I do it right. As previously noted, the TTYX reporting marks translate to Flat cars used for windmill components. This time, I can read the road numbers, and this time I have a more recent ORER to check them against. So, it s the October 2014 Register for a look at TTYX , and The latter two are in the group to , which has a mere 25 total cars across four subsets. The isn t listed at all, but I m still going to go with The Present as the ATP with a close enough caveat. The artwork for the weathering is perhaps a bit harsh looking. I wouldn t expect the actual product to have patches of different shades of brown in quite such a squarish regular pattern, particularly with respect to the deck. I would expect, given that I ve seen first-hand at the MTL factory exactly how the weathering process takes place, for there to be subtle variations from one car to the next. N SCALE RUNNER PACKS: In addition to the below announcement, Runner Pack #110 ( , $104.95), four CSX Transportation Ortner Hoppers, is now available. UMTRR coverage was in the June 2015 issue. The individual catalog numbers and road numbers for these items are as follows: , ; , ; , ; , These are the second through fifth road numbers for this car. The following are in pre-order at present and are NOT currently available. Scheduled delivery is as noted below. UMTRR coverage is being provided ahead of the actual release in order to facilitate preorder decisions; pre-orders close November 30. Scheduled April 2016 Release: , $ Reporting Marks BNSF , , , Quantity four of 60 Foot Centerbeam Flat Car, BNSF (Burlington Northern Santa Fe). Brown (mineral red) with mostly white lettering including Cooper Black reporting marks and gothic road number on left. Black and white double panel consolidated stencils on right. Wood 11

12 hip and scissor truss loads included. Approximate Time Period: 1997 to present. Previous Release: Road Number , April Individual Catalog Numbers for this Runner Pack should be 053 5x 070. As noted with the initial release of this car in April 2009, an article in the January 1996 issue of Rail Model Journal by D. Scott Chatfield is our starting point for this release. Burlington Northern bought cars in two groups from Thrall. In 1997, they took 190 cars numbered to , and in 1990, 300 more numbered to Micro-Trains N Scale center beam is a beautiful model of the Thrall 60-foot beam, complete with brake rigging, approved Mr. Chatfield. To be extremely specific, the MTL model is of the second set of Burlington Northern cars, which have an oval pulling eye in each corner post. Also back in 2009, David Carnell let us know that the BN cars became BNSF series to BNSF began renumbering and repainting these cars in 1997, he reports, and had a quarter of this series done by I m calling the start of the ATP at that 1997 date, not much later than the official merger date of September 22, Let s check progress as of the ORER for October 2004: 376 in the two BN groups and 76 in BNSF (in a maddening number of subsets). While we re here, a quick dimensional data rundown: inside length 60 feet 8 inches, inside width 9 feet 3 inches, inside height 10 feet 3 inches, outside length 68 feet, extreme height 15 feet 5 inches, gross rail weight 253,000 pounds. The October 2007 Equipment Register showed shows 94 cars in BNSF paint and 247 still stenciled for the BN. And I can update to the October 2014 ORER: 83 BNSF cars but just four left in the BN series. That to present ATP should still be good, but I suspect not for much longer. A June 2008 photo of sister car BNSF is available on RailcarPhotos.com, and the exact car is on RRPictureArchives.net as of September MTL did cheat a little by not printing all of the warning on the inside end of the prototype car, but they did include the now famous man running from tipping car illustration which certainly gets the point across-- that point being, load the car from both sides evenly, or else. Before I forget this, I should mention that there is a very nice Historical Overview produced by the BNSF available on their website: check and look for that link toward the bottom of the page. On Page 7, the first official reason I ve seen for the name change is provided: In 2005, the company took a bold step, introducing a new name and look that better expressed the railroad s image as a vibrant and innovative transportation leader. The new name BNSF Railway was streamlined and simplified. The new logo, which brands all of the locomotives, equipment and materials, better reflected the railway BNSF had become in the decade after the merger: progressive, vital, approachable and resourceful. 12

13 N SCALE SPECIAL EDITION RELEASES: In addition to the below, the 2015 Custom Christmas Car ( , $39.95) has been released to those who preordered it. Each car has a customer-specified message on Side A and a choice of one of three holiday scenes on Side B (shown below). Pre-orders for this item were taken in July , $23.95 Modified 40 Foot Hy-Cube Boxcar, All Aboard. Car #5 in the Postcard Series. Ends, roof, side sill and edges of sides are green. End ladders are red. Side A has a multicolor rendition of a picture postcard with off-yellow and green graphics at left and right. Side B has a Postcard Message from Micro-Trains. No reporting marks or road number appear on this car. How about this: After last month s strikeout in which I found nothing on the Winter Stroll car, the first image returned in the search for the phrase All Aboard Holiday Postcard was the one used on this car. Posted on the blog Postcard Craze (URL ) it s described as a circa-1910 colored, embossed postcard with the legend Whitney Made, Worcester Mass on the reverse. The Whitney Valentine Company was founded in 1858 as a stationery store and was a leading publisher of postcards on specialty paper in the late 1800s and early 1900s. They went out of business during World War II due to restrictions on paper use. The characters in this image and on the car remind me a bit of Kewpie Dolls, the cherubic looking figurines that were originally conceived as comic strip characters by American illustrator Rose O Neill ( ). When at the height of their popularity, they were all over advertising and dolls in materials from bisque to plastic to soft vinyl could be had. The 1910 date of the postcard is only a year after the comic strip debuted, so I think that the resemblance, such as it is, is only a coincidence or the Whitney Valentine Company was quick to catch but not infringe on a popular item of the early Twentieth Century. If the Kewpie Dolls aren t quite right, there were also the Campbell Soup Kids, who first appeared in advertising in 1904 or 1905 (depending on which source you use). These rosy cheeked children also appeared as dolls and in numerous different merchandising items, everything and everywhere according to CulinaryLore.com. The original illustrator, Grace Dayton, drew other characters as well, and who knows, perhaps those on the Whitney card too. 13

14 , $ Foot Excess Height Boxcar, Double Plug Doors, 2015 Holiday Car ( Micro- Mouse 2015 ). Purple ends and roof. Multicolor artwork inspired by A Christmas Carol across entire sides of car with legend Merry Christmas from Micro-Mouse in red and green in center, Humbug on left and Micro-Mouse and family on right. Road number assumed to be MTL has announced that this item will be available mid-month and should be at dealers as you read this. Micro-Trains reaches back to Charles Dickens classic A Christmas Carol for this year s Holiday Car. The novella, first published in December 1843, has never been out of print since and has been adopted multiple times for stage and screen. Dickens was one of the most popular writers of the 19 th Century, and might be best known for his tale of Ebenezer Scrooge s transformation from mean miser to generous gentleman. That fiction might have been based on fact; Dickens relationship with his own father was troubled, not least because the elder Dickens was put in debtor s prison when Charles was twelve. Charles idyllic childhood was brought to a seemingly bitter end, yet the hardship he experienced and witnessed first-hand inspired not only A Christmas Carol but other of his well-known works. Dickens only lived to Age 58 but published Oliver Twist, David Copperfield, Great Expectations, A Tale of Two Cities, and hundreds of other pieces of literature and also edited, lectured and performed. Though portions of it were rather bizarre even by today s standards, Dickens squeezed quite a life into a relatively short duration. In this adaptation of A Christmas Carol, Micro-Mouse looks to be playing the part of the cheerful Bob Cratchit, Mrs. Micro-Mouse (assuming that s her name!) is Mrs. Cratchit and Tiny Tim is portrayed by a member of the younger generation. Scrooge s stand-in is the Humbug, whom we first met on the 2011 Graffiti Version of the Holiday Car ( in N Scale and in Z Scale). The setting could easily be a London cobblestone street and the sign on the door doesn t read Scrooge and Marley but Humbug Inc. with the year of release, which gives us a nominal road number of sorts. It s all done in the multicolor process which Micro-Trains has moved more towards in the past few years. This release is by my count the twenty-second in the N Scale Holiday Series of cars. They were issued one per year from 1991 to 2003, with two cars in 1997 (the two-pack of Noel hoppers) and 2000 (the Light Up The Night refrigerator car, still my all-time favorite and the second caboose). The Twelve Days of Christmas series pre-empted MTL Holiday Cars until 2008 when Micro-Mouse made his return. He s been on at least one release ever since, though the 2010 car was a locomotive. Shameless plug department: You can view all of the past releases on my Holiday Gathering page of the UMTRR Website. I ll be adding these 2015 releases to that page as time permits. 14

15 , $32.95 Ringling Brothers Heavyweight Series #3, Hospital Car 3-2 Observation. Red with aluminum roof and end platform railing. Black underframe and trucks. Yellow lettering outlined in black across letterboard: Ringling Bros and Barnum & Bailey. Blue banner with yellow lettering The Greatest Show On Earth at bottom center. Yellow road number 99 at bottom left and Hospital Car on right. Small red cross on white square next to road number and larger red cross on white square on right. According to one source I checked online, Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey and perhaps other shows purchased surplus hospital cars from the government after World Wars I and II, but that s not what we mean here. The cars that I found on the net went the other way in terms of conversion, from hospital cars to more regular service in the Circus Train. I also didn t find a Ringling Brothers #99, but that hardly means it didn t exist. Certainly it s somewhat plausible that a train carrying hundreds of circus staff could use a car equipped for medical emergencies, perhaps not at a fully staffed hospital level but at least to stabilize patients until the nearest facility could be reached. And let s not leave out the many non-human performers that occupied the Big Top either. If nothing else these cars could be used by the traveling veterinarians who looked after the lions and tigers and bears (oh my). And guess what? There is a book titled Circus Doctor, authored by J. Y. Henderson (as told to Richard Taplinger). Henderson was the Chief Veterinarian for the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus in the 1940s. He was responsible for some two hundred horses and another five hundred other animals. In addition to the above, the following item is in pre-order at present and are NOT currently available. Scheduled delivery is as noted below. UMTRR coverage is being provided ahead of the actual release in order to facilitate pre-order decisions; pre-orders close November 30. Scheduled Delivery April 2016: , $39.95 U.S. Marshal and Sheriff Wagon Two-Pack. First wagon is black with gold wheels. White on gold U.S. Marshal lettering at top and gold sixpointed star badge depiction with white U.S. Marshal legend. Second wagon is gold with white on black Sheriff lettering at top and Great Springs County below wagon windows. Preliminary artwork shown; actual product may differ. 15

16 There are two words that I consistently misspell if I am not careful: Marshal and Sheriff. You didn t see how many times I corrected those even in the previous sentence! At any rate, MTL heads to the Law Enforcement Division for this latest pair of wagons. You don t need to check there are no matches for a Great Springs County online, so it s probably safe to assume that these are true Special Edition releases. But there is a website devoted to the history and current activity of the United States Marshals Service ( ). The first thirteen U.S. Marshals were appointed by the first President, George Washington, back in 1789, making the service the oldest Federal law enforcement agency. The service was created as part of the Judiciary Act, also known as Senate Bill Number One of the First Session of the First Congress. (There s a lot a firsts involved here, no?) This act was the subject of considerable argument between the Federalists and the Anti-Federalists, but there was little disagreement or amendment of the sections which created the Marshals and Deputies. According to an article on the Marshals Service website, The role of the federal Marshal was clearly modeled on the county sheriff. Since most of the legislators of 1789, including the authors of the judiciary bill, were lawyers, it is not surprising that they would use their state or counties as examples in defining the role of Marshals. Prior to independence, each of the American colonies had established a system of local courts served by sheriffs appointed by the royal governor (except in Pennsylvania, where sheriffs were elected). The Marshals were empowered to enforce court decisions and federal laws. And enforce them they did, in the former colonies, in the Old West, during the Civil War, in assistance to the Internal Revenue Service, in civil rights conflicts, and even via the Witness Protection Program. The number of districts has grown from the original thirteen to ninetyfour today, 226 years after the establishment of the function. Since the Marshal was largely modeled after the Sheriff, it s fitting that a Sheriff s wagon accompany the U.S. Marshal s wagon. (In fact, the Marshals and local law enforcement often worked together.) I tried to think of famous American sheriffs, but the first thing my brain landed on was the Sheriff of Nottingham. Well, despite him not being especially popular, at least the particular one that Robin Hood took on, he certainly had similar duties to the ones here. Again quoting the U.S. Marshals Service website: According to David Hawke in The Colonial Experience, 'the sheriff became the ranking police and financial officer of the county. He served warrants and made arrests. He collected taxes, the minister s dues, the king s or proprietor s quitrents, and fees owed the governor, secretary, or clerk of the court. He also received ten percent of the proceeds, which seems like a bit of a misaligned incentive to me. I don t think proprietor s quitrents figure in the normal course of duties of modern Sheriff s Departments, but I do know that they have plenty to do even in my current home county. The Monroe County, New York Sheriff s Office is most visible for road enforcement but also has a Civil Bureau, a Court Security Bureau, a Jail Bureau and a Police Bureau. Oh, and a Facebook page! NARROW GAUGE (Nn3) RELEASES: No releases this month. 16

17 Z SCALE NEW RELEASES: and , $27.80 each. Reporting Marks: SOO and Foot Steel Exterior Post Boxcars, Plug Door, Soo Line. White with red door. Large red roadname across car and red stripes and top and bottom of sides. Mostly black lettering otherwise including reporting marks on left. Approximate Time Period: 1977 (build date) to between mid-1987 and mid Note: Only the image of the 252 release was available at press time. Micro-Trains conveniently supplies the build date of 1977, build place of the Soo s own Fond du Lac, Wisconsin shops and the number series of to right in its car copy for this release. As with the February 2014 release of this car in N Scale ( ), that leads us to a bingo on the SOO on the RRPictureArchives.net website. The car was found in 1980 out in California. We also already know that this is a Fond du Lac Soo boxcar that it would have seven posts either side of the door, not six as on the MTL 511 body style. (MTL actually references seven posts in its car copy.) But the ends are different as well, a 4/4 Dreadnaught type on the real car if I have my terminology correct. The door and side sills are a bit different between model and prototype also. The Official Railway Equipment Register (ORER) for January 1978 shows the series at its full allotment of 100 cars. They were described as Box, Steel, 15 inch Freightmaster Cushioning Device, 10 Foot Plug Doors, Odd and Even Numbers. The inside length was 50 feet 6 inches, inside height 10 feet 7 inches, outside length 57 feet, extreme height 14 feet 11 inches, and capacity 5038 cubic feet or 200,000 pounds. MTL notes that 38 cars remained in 1981 that s not many for a group of 100 built four years earlier. But that s not exactly true: there were only 38 cars in the main series, however there were 61 more in a subseries directly below in the April 1981 ORER. The difference was not in the dimensions which were the same but in the AAR Type Code, which was B208 for the first 38 and A230 for the other 61. Externally, I don t think these would be any different from each other. To further confound the casual observer, the 98 cars remaining in the April 1984 Equipment Register are consolidated back into a single entry with AAR Code A435, or neither of the previous two. Yikes. In October 1986 there were 97 cars in service for the Soo Line, and the same in the July 1987 ORER, but in the July 1989, the entire series is gone. I can guess where it went: the Wisconsin Central, which has a total of 96 boxcars with the same road numbers, same dimensions and even the A435 AAR Car Type Code. When the Soo Line spun off the Wisconsin Central in 1987, a nontrivial amount of rolling stock went along. That means a pretty tight window for the end of the Approximate Time Period. 17

18 , $29.95 Reporting Marks: NADX Foot Wood Double Sheathed Refrigerator Car, Vertical Brake Staff, Baby Ruth Series #6. Yellow sides, brown roof and ends, black underframe and door details. Black reporting marks and dimensional data on left. Multicolor rendition of three candy bars: Buy Jiminy, Butterfinger and Dip on left, and red and white rendition of Baby Ruth bar on right. White lettering on ends. Approximate Time Period: 1930 (based on service date on car ) to mid- 1930s. Please see the coverage of the N Scale release ( ) above, but note that the Z Scale car is a 40 foot car with straight underframe whereas the N Scale version is the more correct 36 foot truss rod underframe car and , $21.80 each. Reporting Marks: P&LE and Foot Steel Open Hoppers, Offset Sides, Flat Ends, Pittsburgh & Lake Erie. Black with white lettering including large reporting marks with stripes above and below on left and small oval New York Central System herald on right. Simulated coal loads included. Approximate Time Period: 1952 (build date) or 1964 (service date) to as late as the early 1970s. Over on the Steam Era Freight Cars YahooGroup there s a continuing scholarly discussion of how far cars were likely to wander when in service. Open hoppers are among the frequently mentioned car types in this thread. Although it s less likely to see, for example, a Pennsylvania Railroad open hopper than a PRR boxcar on, say, the Union Pacific in Nebraska, there are always exceptions. The bingo in the New York Central Color Guide to Freight and Passenger Equipment (Volume 1) for P&LE is one of those exceptions: it was quite a long way from home in Dallas, Texas on the Rock Island in December Most of the Micro-Trains car copy comes from the caption in the Color Guide. However, the Pittsburgh & Lake Erie wasn t a joint venture with the New York Central as implied in that car copy; actually, the P&LE was stock-controlled by the NYC and was affiliated but never formally merged in. The control continued through the Penn Central era but the P&LE regained its independence after Conrail. It was merged into CSX Transportation in The hopper s paint scheme may seem to be a bit of a mix of old and new, but it s correct. The reporting marks are in the later large gothic typestyle usually connected with the cigar band herald that debuted in But that style of reporting marks was also used along with the oval New York Central System herald that appears on this car from 1955 to The car s color is a little more of a curiosity. According to Terry Link s Canada Southern website ( ), hoppers were painted brown from February 1941 to 18

19 June 1956, but these cars were built in 1953 (the Color Guide gives 1952) and they re black! Perhaps the builder, Pullman-Standard, did what the NYC told them to do and perhaps not. It s actually somewhat unusual that P-S built these cars as much of the Central s roster was constructed in its own shops during the decades up to and including the 1950s. Of course, open hoppers in the New York Central System did not receive Century Green paint that wouldn t have ended well but the P&LE used its own version of the Cigar Band herald in the 1960s. The Canada Southern website also notes that with respect to HO Scale versions, the P&LE/NYC Class 834-H, to which the prototype cars belong, is taller and shorter than models. How s that again? Well, a look at the ORER for January 1955 helps here: the inside length was 31 feet 6 inches, outside length 32 feet 6 inches, and extreme height 11 feet. That s less long, or shorter than the MTL 533 body style, and more high, or taller than the MTL 533 body style or put another way, taller and shorter, though not by much at all particularly when reduced to 1:220 proportion. The 55 ton hoppers carried 2210 cubic feet when level full. The series to were the highest numbered cars on the P&LE roster at the time, and all one thousand cars were in service then. The Color Guide photo shows the with a service date of 1964, so the strictly speaking ATP would start there and not The Equipment Register for January 1964 showed 983 of the original 1000 cars remaining in service. The Canada Southern website calls out 1974 as the end of the ATP for this group. That s six years into Penn Central, and it s certainly possible that the later NYC herald or even the PC herald made it on to some of these cars. However, as of the October 1972 ORER only 38 cars were listed. Z SCALE REPRINTS: No releases this month. Z SCALE WEATHERED RELEASES: The following items were announced as mid-month releases via the Micro-Trains website, the MTL Facebook page, and via the Micro-Trains E- Line, all on or about November , $64.95 Reporting Marks: EEC 5529 and Aware Two-Pack of 50 Foot Steel Exterior Post Boxcars, Single Youngstown Door, First Coast Railroad. Both cars are brown with graffiti side in black with extensive graffiti. The 5529 has a gasoline can and lighter and the 3534 has a liquor bottle with flaming wick. Approximate Time Period: as early as Please see the coverage of the N Scale release above, Catalog Number Individual catalog numbers will be posted to the UMTRR website. 19

20 , $24.85 Reporting Marks: B&O (fourth digit may vary, last two digits obscured) 50 Foot Steel Boxcar, Double Door, Baltimore & Ohio / Chessie System. Dark blue with yellow lettering including Chessie System roadname and reporting marks on left and Ches-C herald on right. Light to moderate weathering and cat face added to Ches-C herald. Approximate Time Period: early 1970s to early 1980s. Previous Releases (as Catalog Number 13706): Road Number , September 1989; Road Number , January 2004; then Runner Pack #74 ( ) with Road Numbers , , , and , February Note: It s possible but not confirmed that any of the four numbers in the Runner Pack were utilized for this release. Who s the wise guy Part Two: The cat face treatment applied to the N Scale open hopper is also found on this Z Scale Weathered Release. Based on the knock out of the last two digits of the road number, I ll assume that components of extra Runner Packs were the material for this offering. And as usual, I ll start with what digits are available to put back on this car just about any small lettering will do. The ORER for April 1976 shows the group numbered to with 278 cars in the main series and 98 more cars scattered across five subseries, mostly with differing capacities (110,000 pounds versus 100,000) or some special equipment or designated service. The key dimensions were: inside length 50 feet 6 inches, outside length 54 feet 4 inches, door opening 15 feet (a minor door thing with an 8+7 configuration), and capacity 4952 cubic feet. In 1981 there were 330 cars remaining but by 1985 that had slipped all the way to 35 pieces. As noted with the pre-order announcement of the Runner Pack, it s possible that these cars should have their running boards removed. While there are no examples of this particular series of cars in the Chessie System Color Guide to Freight and Passenger Equipment, there are also no Chessie-painted boxcars with their running boards still installed. Z SCALE RUNNER PACKS: In addition to the below announcement, Runner Pack #85 ( , $74.95), four Santa Fe (AT&SF) 40 Foot Despatch Stock Cars, is now available. UMTRR coverage was in the June 2015 issue. The individual catalog numbers and road numbers for these items are as follows: , 50632; , 50642; , 50652; , These are the second through fifth road numbers for this car. Note that the image at right is of four copies of the same road number. 20

21 The following is in pre-order at present and is NOT currently available. Scheduled delivery is as shown below. UMTRR coverage is being provided ahead of the actual release of these items in order to facilitate pre-order decisions; pre-orders close November 30. Scheduled April 2016 Release: , $ Reporting Marks: ABOX 50006, 50050, 50073, Quantity four of 50 Foot Steel Exterior Post Boxcars, Combination Door, Railbox (ABOX). Yellow with aluminum roof and black sliding door. Mostly black lettering including reporting marks and Railbox logo with large lower case stylized r on left. Red, black and blue Next Load/Any Road logo on right. Approximate Time Period: late 1970 s (1978 built date given by MTL) to present. Previous Releases: None. Catalog Numbers will be in the 512 series. N Scale model shown for representation. As I noted when the N Scale Runner Pack of this car was announced for pre-order in May 2014 for delivery in October 2014, when the first release of this N Scale car was issued in 2002, the best I could do was point you to the October 2000 issue of Rail Model Journal for a color photo of ABOX That car, which was built by FMC, isn t from the same prototype series as this offering. It was noted that the combination door made life easier for the loading of items like plywood and wallboard. The x in Railbox goes right over the auxiliary plug door on the real thing, as with the MTL model. MTL did choose a later paint scheme, which has smaller versions of both the Railbox name and the next load any road symbol, and omits the The Nationwide Box Car Pool slogan. Both the early and later schemes were still around in 2014, as observed personally on a train through Rochester. Also as in 2014, I can directly reference articles in the July and August 1980 issues of Railroad Model Craftsman. Four hundred combination door boxcars, numbered to 50399, were built by Pacific Car & Foundry in June 1978 and were designated Class XCF30. Another 2050 cars were constructed by FMC between May 1978 and February If you don t have those RMC issues, check the George Elwood s Fallen Flags website for a bingo on the and images of other cars in the group. And here s the takeaway from being able to look at the prototypes from both PC&F and FMC: the FMC prototype is actually closer to the model. A key difference between the two is the roof panels. On the PC&F car, the panels have diagonals except at the ends where they have an X pattern. The FMC cars have X-panels except for at the ends where they are blank just like the MTL 026 body style. This is an easy fix for these cars as long as decals are available. Swapping the 0 in the third digit of the road number with a 4 would do it; as would changing the 0 to a 1 in the second position. 21

22 Meanwhile, the ORER for April 1981 shows all 400 cars in the series ABOX to They were AAR Class XM with description Box, Steel, Nailable Steel Floor, Double Door, Lading Strap Anchors. The inside length is 50 feet 6 inches and the outside length, 55 feet 4 inches. Total door opening is 16 feet, no door thing there with respect to the model. Capacity is 154,000 pounds. The group slipped quickly to just 165 pieces in October 1986 but remained relatively stable at that level right through the 1990s. The January 2000 Register listed 162 cars, while 45 remained as of October 2014 which is an update from the N Scale Runner Pack coverage. I think we can continue to squeeze a to present ATP. The start of the Approximate Time Period isn t as easy. The earliest photo I see with an ABOX car in the later paint scheme MTL will reproduce is from I ll go with late 1990s although I also see that some ABOX cars retained their as delivered scheme into the decade of the 2000s. That first paint scheme s lettering didn t hold up well. This might have been the reason for the change to the simpler decoration less to wear. Z SCALE SPECIAL EDITION RELEASES: In addition to the below, the Reindeer Belt Train Set ( , $189.95) will be available mid-month per MTL. UMTRR coverage was in the July 2015 issue, but the image wasn t, so here it is. The individual items are as follows (not in the same order as in the image): , Powered F7 Diesel Locomotive, Rudolph, Road Number 2015 (on numberboards) , Streamlined 71 Foot Baggage Car, Blitzen / Comet / Reindeer Belt. No road number , Streamlined 71 Foot Baggage Car, Prancer/ Cupid / Donner. No road number , Streamlined 71 Foot Baggage Car, Dasher / Vixen / Dancer. No road number. 22

23 , $ Foot Mechanical Refrigerator Car, Rivet Sides, 2015 Holiday Car ( Micro-Mouse 2015 ). Purple ends and roof. Multicolor artwork inspired by A Christmas Carol across entire sides of car with legend Merry Christmas from Micro-Mouse in red and green in center, Humbug on left and Micro- Mouse and family on right. Road number assumed to be MTL has announced that this item will be available mid-month and should be at dealers as you read this. Please see the coverage of the N Scale release above, Catalog Number MTL ANNOUNCEMENTS: The biggest announcement of the month isn t a fun one to pass along, and I ll just quote it: Due to issues with the chassis, the [N Scale] BNSF and MKT SW1500 releases scheduled for early 2016 have been cancelled. That s too bad, as the positive opinion of these units has been widespread (excluding the usual Eternally Unsatisfied). Word from the UMTRR Spy Network is that, just like James Bond, these will return, but also like James Bond, when exactly is still To Be Determined. You have the flat car sets, but still want more Wind Turbine Loads? MTL is taking the unusual step of opening pre-orders for a Prop Blade 2-Pack ( , $21.95) and a Hub and Generator Four-Pack ( , $13.95). Delivery is scheduled for January You might think that pre-order is not the direction in which to go here, but since I suspect that separate loads are usually available in very limited quantities (as in, just the leftovers not used in or on regular release freight cars), a pre-order will guarantee a sizable enough production. Do I see that happening with, say, the N Scale Box Load #1 Two-Pack ( ) that s available this month? No, I don t. DISCONTINUED ALERT: Another trainload of items have left the building, including two from last month. The brown Missouri Pacific boxcar ( ) and the CSXT covered hopper ( ) lead the list, and not far behind is the ATW Halloween-themed Weathered/Graffiti gondola from mid-september ( ). (The CN Orange boxcar was already reported as discontinued last month.) Staying with Weathered releases, the C&O LCL boxcar ( , November 2014) and the ICG boxcar complete with rust ( , July) are outta here. Sticking with boxcars, the Southern 1972 Series ( , April), the New York Central in Century Green ( , July), and the reprinted plug door boxcars without roofwalk in Union Pacific ( , February) and Canadian National ( , August 2014) are all gone, and the Soo Line wood double-sheathed boxcar ( , August) has also checked out. Still in N Scale, two more of the Nose Art series have been discharged: the Kentucky Belle ( , February) and the Bourbon Boxcar ( , March). In a related story, the second number of the DODX container flat car has also been dismissed ( , October 2013, first number already gone). And three more of the Tank Car Series have emptied out, 23

24 all from 2014: the Sherwood ( , January), the Imperial Oil ( , February) and the Navy Gas and Supply ( , April). The swiss cheese Wisconsin and Southern double-plug door boxcar has sold out ( , May). The New York Central flat car reprint is gone ( , October 2014), and the second number of the Civil War Era flat car for the Central Pacific is also ( , April). Finally, there are two drop-bottom gondolas on the 1:160 bye-bye board: The Union Pacific with white lettering ( , September) and the Ringling Brothers car with extended sides and giraffe ( , February 2011). In Z Scale, three releases which were the second numbers of virtual two-packs have left the building; and in all cases, the first number had previously sold out. They are the BAR State of Maine boxcar ( , March), the The Rock gondola ( , also March), and the SFLC/Santa Fe well car ( , February). Reversing that, the first number of the Canadian National x-post plug door boxcar ( , October 2013) is out and the second number had previously sold out. Not to be outdone, both numbers of the Santa Fe x-post plug door boxcar are gone ( x, December 2014). Three of the Tank Car Series have been drained: the Cities Service ( , May 2014), the Kanotex ( , September 2014) and the Cia Mexicana ( , March 2015). By my reckoning, that means the entire Z Scale Tank Car Series is now discontinued. The Weathered CNW PS-2 covered hopper ( , March 2014) and Weathered Missouri Pacific x-post plug door boxcar ( , August 2014) are gone, as is the Southern Pacific 44-seat passenger car ( , May 2014). Finally, while the 2015 Holiday Cars are in, the 2013 Holiday Car is out ( , October 2013). INCREMENTAL INFORMATION DEPARTMENT: File this item in under CP or CPR? Long time UMTRR Gang Member Ron Holding sent over to UMTRR HQ a scan of an intriguing photo, of steam locomotive Number 285, with a paint scheme quite similar to the MTL limited release N Scale locomotive from last month. However, Ron explained that the photo wasn t of a Central Pacific locomotive, but a Canadian Pacific locomotive. Canadian Pacific 254 was built by Rogers in November 1882 and carried builders plate number I am attaching an image of Canadian Pacific Number 285 in order for you to note the very distinctive style of the numerals in use at that time. Also, note the cab lettering with the periods between the letters. Ron doesn t think that the CPR used maroon behind the lettering on the cab panel, but otherwise there s more than just a passing resemblance. I know that C.P.R. was the favored set of initials for the Canadian Pacific (just as C.N.R. was for the Canadian National at one time) so it s entirely possible that the model is of a loco that was in service for the CP, not, er, the CP. MTL advertised this particular engine as being still available, the only one of the three 4-4-0s released last month, so if you re North of the Border you might consider it. The build date of 1882 is a bit past the Civil War Era, but I guess if in Canada, it wouldn t be a Civil War Era steamer anyway. 24