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IrwinsJournal.com Presents: The Unofficial Micro-Trains Release Report Issue #232 April, 2016 (Not affiliated with Micro-Trains Line, Inc.) Copyright 2016, George J. Irwin. Reproduction prohibited. Please see legal notice at the end of this document. Hello again everyone! Well, I feel a lot better now or at least somewhat caught up. The 2016 Release and Month-By-Month tables were finally posted to the UMTRR Website on March 31! And of course, with the reveal of this month s lineup, I ve reverted to being behind again on those same web pages. Hopefully it won t take the better part of ninety days to catch up. First things first, though: our usual look behind the red and yellow sign, then I m back to the HTML yes, I still use HTML N SCALE NEW RELEASES: 025 00 910, $27.95 Reporting Marks: WVRC 8161. 50 Foot Steel Exterior Post Boxcar, Single Door, Wabash Valley Railroad. #3 in the MTL N Scale Per Diem Boxcar Series. Yellow with black lettering including reporting marks on left and roadname on right. Red and white herald left of door. Double panel consolidated stencils at lower right. Approximate Time Period: 1979 ( new date on car) to no later than 1981. A May 1980 shot of the real WVRC 8161, also known around here as a bingo, is on the website RRPictureArchives.net. I had to stare at that herald for a while before finding the W and V the left hand leg of the W is curved to fit inside the C (for Company, I suppose). The 8161 does not have the U-1 wheel inspection dot as shown in the photo so Micro-Trains wasn t wrong about omitting it. It s easy enough to include one should that be desired just squeeze it in between the dimensional data and the double panel consolidated stencils on the right. An overhead shot of sister car WVRC 8132, on the same website, caught in August 1979, shows what appears to be a bare galvanized roof, but based on the lighting I can t be sure about that so I won t call that a delta to the paint scheme MTL used. I can confirm that the prototype cars were built by Evans-SIECO which makes them not quite a match to the MTL 025 body style. The side sill was the first difference I noticed, though the roof could be different as well the shot of the 8132 just isn t clear enough. The Official Railway Equipment Register (ORER) for July 1980 shows the series WVRC 8100 to 8199, described as Box, Steel, Cushioned Underframe, Nailable Steel Floor. The inside length was 50 feet 6 inches, inside width 9 feet 6 inches, inside height 11 feet, outside length 57 feet 4 inches, extreme height 15 feet 5 inches, door opening 10 feet, and capacity 5288 cubic 1

feet or 154,000 pounds. Incidentally, the Wabash Valley was already in the business of picking up second hand cars: their 7724, part of the group 7700 to 7749, was formerly in the employ of the Vermont Northern. There s a shot of it from 1980 on the Fallen Flags website, with only the reporting marks changed and the original VNOR road number kept. And the WVRC reporting marks themselves would change before too long after these cars were built and leased from Itel Corporation, as the railroad itself had quite the short life. It remained in the April 1981 ORER but was delisted no later than the April 1984 Register! Had the UMTRR Research Accumulation included ORERs between those two particular issues, I would have been able to shrink the end of that Approximate Time Period even farther to 1981, in fact. The Wabash Valley Railroad was a venture of the Morrison-Knudsen Company, whose logo is at left and I m sure you can see the family resemblance to the Wabash Valley s herald. Morrison-Knudsen was founded in 1905 and was largely a civil engineering and construction company. However, we would know it better for its railroad operations, including passenger car and rapid transit projects and locomotive rebuilding, including the famous Delaware and Hudson PA diesels. M-K was deeply involved in BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit), the New York City subway, NJ Transit s Arrow I rebuilds, and SEPTA s Silverliner refurbishments. M-K Rail, as this unit was known for a time, also built bi-level California Cars for Amtrak California service. Morrison-Knudsen is itself a Fallen Flag, though its locomotive rebuilding is still extant as a part of Motive Power Industries. The State of Illinois provided funding for the Wabash Valley, perhaps as part of the post- Conrail designated operator arrangement for marginal trackage. This particular trackage was the former Pennsylvania Railroad s route between Decatur and Paris in that state (once part of the Pennsy s line to Peoria), and M-K used its rebuilt locomotives to run the railroad between 1977 and 1981. When the state funding ended, so did the Wabash Valley. By the way, the Wikipedia stub on this railroad is misleading it places the railroad in Kansas! Unfortunately, MTL picked up that non-fact for its car copy. While trying to come up with the second attempt to operate this trackage, I came across on the Railway Historical Tumblr pages a glorious black and white image by Richard Koenig of the end of a Wabash Valley train passing a classic PRR-keystone shaped whistle post. I wonder if that post ended up in someone s railroadiana collection after the tearup of the line. The train s last car is a bay window caboose with a baggage compartment! I then found the end of the story of the Decatur to Paris line: it was given a final go by Craig Burroughs, who had previously operated the Erie Western. The line was called the Prairie Central, and it was gone in late 1984. Meanwhile, I found that this series of boxcars went from the Wabash Valley to the Green Bay and Western in 1981 as their 8200 to 8299. There are photos of GBW 8202, 8210 and 8248 also on RRPictureArchives; only the reporting marks were changed. The Green Bay and Western then dispositioned these cars to the Atlanta & St. Andrews Bay (The Bay Line) in 1986. 2

035 00 241 and 035 00 242, $19.90 each Reporting Marks: B&O 11110 and 11116. 40 Foot Despatch Stock Cars, Baltimore and Ohio. Freight car red (the B&O s Iron SequiOxide ) with white lettering including reporting marks on left and roadname right. Arch bar trucks. Approximate Time Period: 1915 (build date on car) to early 1930s. I suppose I should begin this commentary with the usual Broken Record Advisory: the 035 (and Z Scale 520) body styles are based on a New York Central Despatch Stock Car prototype and most if not all other stock and cattle cars don t look much like that prototype. I actually have two (!) in-print references from books recently added to the UMTRR Research Accumulation. First, on Page 33 of historian Edward S. Kaminski s recent work Pullman- Standard Freight Cars, 1900-1960 there is a builder s photo of B&O 11109. In this case, the MC 4-15 build date is a clue. The MC could stand for Mather Car Company, which built a fair number of freight cars during the early part of the Twentieth Century. But not these they were actually constructed by Haskell and Barker using the Mather Patent design, in Michigan City, Indiana that s the MC here. The April 1915 date on the MTL car is accurate. The car was one of five hundred, numbered 11000 to 11499, built as Lot Number 5017. The second reference is in the softcover Stock Car Cyclopedia Volume One, which has a chapter on the B&O s Mather stock car fleet. (Note to me: this book also includes a photo of the actual New York Central Despatch Stock Car on which the MTL body styles are based.) While there isn t a photo of a car in the exact series, there is a drawing of the 111000 series Mather Patent cars executed by Robert Hundman which is close to the car MTL chose. There are other two notes of interest: first, the roadname moved from the right side of the car to the left side above the reporting marks, possibly as early as the 1920s; second, the B&O had both single and double deck cars. With that, let s go way back to the ORER for October 1919. The series B&O 11000 to 11499 was described as Stock, Single Deck, Mather, Steel Underframe with MCB Designation SM and these rather exact dimensions: inside length 35 feet 10 ¼ inches, inside width 8 feet 5 ¼ inches, inside height 7 feet 8 ¾ inches, outside length 36 feet 1 5/8 inches, extreme height 14 feet (counting a vertical brake staff speaking of deltas to the MTL body style OK, that s enough), side door opening 4 feet 11 ¼ inches wide by 7 feet 6 inches high, what might be two small end doors, and capacity 2308 cubic feet or 80,000 pounds. The group was just one car short of its original five hundred at that time, but was still larger at 499 cars than all of the other B&O sets of stock cars put together. With the possible caveat of the change in paint scheme, I ll note that as of the April 1928 and January 1931 ORERs there were 496 cars in the series. 3

Arch Bar Trucks were banned from interchange service in 1938, however, strictly speaking, this series did not last that long as the 11000 numbers were gone no later than the July 1935 Equipment Register. I don t think it s a case of renumbering into a different series either they appear to have been stricken from the B&O roster entirely. 065 00 890, $22.90 Reporting Marks: D&RGW X-2906. 39 Foot Tank Car, Single Dome, Rio Grande (Denver & Rio Grande Western). Silver (including trucks and couplers) with black handrail. Black lettering including large reporting marks on left and speed lettering roadname on right. Approximate Time Period: 1968 (based on service date on car) or earlier, through at least 1973 based on photo evidence. Technically a new release, but MTL has done this paint scheme on a Special Run two-pack, N Scale Collector/Enthusiast Number 06-84, with road numbers X2905 and X2907 (NSC 06-82 and 06-83 respectively) for the 14 th Annual NSC Convention in 2006. For just a simple company service tank car, this release has led your faithful reviewer on several different hunts for information. Starting this was a photo of what I suspect is sister car X-2905 in Jim Eager s Rio Grande Color Guide to Freight and Passenger Equipment, Page 107. That car was built by the Pennsylvania Tank Car Company in 1919 as noted for the X-2906 in MTL s car copy. Another use for old tank cars was carrying a supply of potable water for track gangs, Eager wrote. The photograph of the X-2905 was taken in 1973 and the service date was in 1968 just as with the X-2906. If the cars are the same, then the 065 body style is a more modern example of single dome tank cars than the prototype; it s larger and has a different underframe. Jim Eager notes elsewhere in the Color Guide that the scheme in which the X-2906 is painted is the latter day M-O-W silver but I couldn t find a reference to when the Rio Grande switched to that color from its previous black. Adding to the confusion is that other tank cars which were not for water service were still in the original black paint and were also photographed in 1973. Given that the Approximate Time Period is therefore not going to be any better than a guess, though fortunately I think Rule #1 can be applied here pretty easily, let s go over what we do know. First, I found a modeling blog by Boxcar Red of N Scale equipment which explained how the MTL tank car could be modified to more closely resemble the X2915, another water car. This blog is actually in Japanese but there are English translations; key here is this note: DRGW X-2900 to X-2946 series Water Cars (Tank): According to the MSCG [how I used to abbreviate the Color Guide!], X-2905 was built in 1919. But the prototype photo of X-2915 shows a little [difference] from X-2905 shown in MSCG. However, [the] January 1971 Summary of Equipment lists them in one series. I actually found that January 1971 summary of Rio Grande equipment online (!) (See URL www.idrgw.com/equipmentsummaries/equipsummframe.htm ) and it s shown that there were 21 of these water cars. This doesn t necessarily mean that all of the cars in this group 4

are identical, however, and I actually doubt that. Since we re in stand in status here anyway, I m not sure that matters much here. Meanwhile, Boxcar Red also stated that he did his own Rio Grande water tank car even though Micro-Trains had in fact done one already. But it is an expensive and rare Collector s Item. That and a further online check confirmed what I dimly recalled: back in 2006, MTL did a two-pack of this car for the 14 th Annual N Scale Convention in Denver. By that time unprototypical markings were no longer required on Special Runs, so, effectively, the X-2905 number was already taken with one of the cars in the two-pack. I m relatively sure that the photo in the Color Guide of the X-2905 was the basis for the artwork, and for this artwork as well. While I cannot call an exact ATP end for this car, I do know what happened to it. Famous N Scale Rio Grande modeler Mike Danneman found and photographed in it in Eisele, Colorado in June 2014: Former D&RGW tank car No. X2906, a former water car, is buried in a low earthen berm here. Many years ago, a small community called Fireclay was located here, with this tank car most likely used as water storage for the town. Now the 8123 gallon capacity car rests among the rocks, dirt, grass and shrubs, providing a curiosity to another era. Just for a little more on this general topic of car reassignment to company service, I came across a 2011 post to the DRGW YahooGroup by member drgwcabman, who transcribed to that mailing list an Authority For Expenditure dated June 4, 1947 in the amount of $1,526 to Transfer 5 SG Tank Cars from Revenue Service to Work Service. The before and after were as follows: Tank Car 19102 - To be stenciled Water Car X-2937 Tank Car 19103 - To be renumbered 019103 Tank Car 19104 - To be stenciled Diesel Fuel Oil Car X-3583 Tank Car 19105 - To be stenciled Water Car X-2938 Tank Car 19106 - To be stenciled Water Car X-2939 The Purpose and Necessity for this Authority for Expenditure was These cars have deteriorated to the extent that they are no longer suitable for revenue service, but can be utilized to advantage in work service. The amount of money involved was sufficiently large to require the approval of the Rio Grande s President Wilson McCarthy. 069 00 200, $24.75 Reporting Marks: FGEX 1100. 51 Foot Mechanical Refrigerator, Riveted Sides, EMD Frigifrater. White roof and ends, white and sky blue sides with white reporting marks on left and black and white EMD Frigifrater logo on right. Dark blue dimensional data. Approximate Time Period: see text (not a bad thing this time). 5

The Chicago Tribune of Sunday, August 28, 1955 (available online) included a special supplement what we might call advertorial today describing and promoting the General Motors Powerama of 1955, held between August 31 and September 25. Free admission! The thrilling story of power high velocity power of the strength needed to meet the heavy demands of the fast-moving modern world will be told in a large and colorful fair which will be opened in the large open space just south of Soldiers Field. While railroad equipment was clearly being overshadowed by automobiles (the 1955 Chevy!), and clearly the lead attraction for GM in the railroad category was the debut of the Aerotrain, there was among the 250 (!) exhibits one that has become a New Release for Micro-Trains this month. I ve (hopefully without endangering myself!) snipped a portion of the full-page Electro-Motive Division advertisement from the Tribune which describes the Frigifrater. An article elsewhere in the supplement further describes this car: [It] utilizes cold wall refrigeration with air ducts around the lining of the car. The ducts are fed with refrigerated air by means of blowers. The car requires little servicing while maintaining any temperature between zero and 65 above. It was a new car at the time, but as we know from more than sixty years later, it didn t quite catch on. There may have been more than one Frigifrater, or at least there was more than one set of reporting marks for the one Frigifrater. A slide (ok, color transparency ) recently offered on that Internet Auction Community of a car in the same paint scheme carried the markings SFRD (Santa Fe Refrigerator Department) 2525. A drawing and image accompanying that listing showed reporting marks GMX 200 and a new date in 1956. I think this might have been what was painted on the Frigifrater when it was on display at the Powerama. And then there s FGEX 1100 which was used on the MTL car; the UMTRR Spy Network thoughtfully provided an image of that rendition as well, which does appear to have a new date of May 1964. Assuming that as FGEX 1100, it was part of the roster of the Fruit Growers Express, it was mixed into a rather large group numbered 1000 to 1600. An extensive ORER lookup probably isn t going to be the point here, nor would be a strict comparison to the 069 body style. (Spoiler alert: There are differences.) Instead, we have a rendition of a car that, to be honest, I had never known about prior to this release. Even after forty-plus years of model railroading, I m still learning. 6

114 00 170, $21.90 and 114 00 180, $21.90 and 114 00 190, $21.90 Reporting Marks: None 42 Foot Spine Car with Uprights. Black, no paint, no lettering. Fitted with arch bar trucks. Simulated log loads (Numbers 17, 18 and 19) included. Approximate Time Period: much of the 20 th Century. Micro-Trains announced that these items are not on dealer standing order. Hmm, when was the last time that this Modern Log Car, specifically, the 114 body style, was released? Let s check the table ah, here it is, April 2013, with what is nominally Log Load Number 16. The chronology and sequence is a bit confusing, since cars Number 11 through 14 were in Runner Pack #57, issued in November 2011, and Cars 1, 2, and 3 were part of 2005 s Chehalis Western Train Set (993 01 010) and yes, I did have to check, I don t have everything memorized! Anyway, the general backstory for log cars of this type has been covered multiple times in these bytes. However, I ve also learned over time that websites, including ones I ve previously cited, disappear into 404 Land and so the references I ve previously made are no longer available. While my favorite go-to place for these log cars remains the book Rails in the North Woods which cannot go 404 unless there is a catastrophe at UMTRR HQ here are a few websites available at this writing with information on logging railroads: Michigan State University hosts a page ( geo.msu.edu/extra/geogmich/rr-logging.html ) about the history of Michigan s logging railroads, though the photos could be representative of just about anywhere. By 1887 there were 89 logging railroads in the state, making the harvesting of lumber much more efficient than via river or overland with sleighs and leading to a huge deforestation of the state. DigitalNC has a set of photos of lumber and logging operations in Transylvania County, North Carolina, including some human interest images. The URL for this is a bit long http://www.digitalnc.org/blog/railroad-and-logging-photographs-from-transylvania-county-on-digitalnc/ How about images of logging in Florida? The Florida Memory site has a set of these, including loading of cars that look similar to MTL products and also loading of logs onto Atlantic Coast Line flat cars. Go to www.floridamemory.com and search on the terms Florida Photographic Collection and Logging Railroads the resulting URL is about a zillion characters long but should return 72 images. 7

Finally, the site Logging Railroads of North America ( www.loggingrailroads.com ) is an in-progress project to at least list all of the known operations in, well, North America. I was surprised to learn that there were at least four in my home state of New Jersey. I m not even counting sites devoted to specific model logging railroads, citations of in-print books, or streaming videos of more recent prototype operations. It s quite easy to get lost in this Internet Vortex happy additional hunting, but be careful! You might not be heard from for a while 148 00 080, $29.95 Road Number: 3552 (will be CP 3552 in website listings). Heavyweight Mail/Baggage Car, Canadian Pacific. Maroon sides and ends; black roof, underbody and trucks. Gold lettering including roadname off center on letterboard, Express at bottom left, car number at bottom center and Mail at bottom right. Approximate Time Period: at widest, 1928 into the 1970s. Not much hunting needed here for a bingo: the CP 3552 in restored paint was photographed in August 2008 at the Alberta Central Railway Museum in Wetaskiwin, Alberta (about 70 kilometers south of Edmonton), and the image posted to RRPictureArchives.net. It s noted in the caption that the car was originally built in 1923 by Canadian Car and Foundry and the CP itself (not sure how that construction was divided). It was a Work Service Car through 1991, but it s not stated when that conversion occurred, which would have been nice for the Approximate Time Period. We do know that the last Railway Post Office run was in April, 1971 ( see www.trainweb.org/oldtimetrains/various/railway_mail.htm for a short history of Railway Mail in Canada) so the ATP could end there, or the 3552 could have been kept in operation for baggage service only until perhaps the startup of VIA Rail Canada in 1977 or it could have been excessed out of the active roster well before either of those dates. The ATP is therefore a very large guess this time. Anyway, the side of the 3552 we can view in the photo is the opposite side from the one MTL has in its image, that is, the baggage door is on the left and the mail door on the right. The roof and window arrangement differ between the prototype and the 148 body style; the degree to which this is a stand in is as usual left up to the modeler. I believe that the windows on the real 3552 have been modernized as well, which would make sense given its use as a company service car. The Official Register of Passenger Equipment (ORPTE) for March 1943 lists a group of twenty Mail and Express cars numbered 3550 to 3569. They are shown as 70 feet and over and carried a per diem charge of 13 dollars and a mileage charge of 8 cents. There s more detail in the ORPTE for January 1953, for a smaller group 3550 to 3560: baggage compartment 48 feet, mail compartment 30 feet, inside length 78 feet 5 inches, length over buffers 83 feet. The charges have gone up quite a bit also: per diem 24 dollars 70 cents and mileage 15.2 cents. 8

148 00 120, $30.80 Road Number: 817 (will be MILW 817 in website listings). Heavyweight Mail/Baggage Car, Milwaukee Road. Orange with maroon band at top of sides. Brown roof, underframe and trucks. Metallic gold lettering including roadname across top in maroon band and Railway Express Agency with road number at bottom center. Approximate Time Period: 1930s to late 1950s at most, see text. Call this a Tale of Two Photos. As you probably know, the first place I check for prototype images is my stash of Morning Sun Color Guides, if I have them for that railroad. In this case, I thought that the Milwaukee Road Color Guide to Freight and Passenger Equipment Volume 1 was the place to be, as Page 15 shows a mail/baggage car that while not in the same Milwaukee Road paint scheme and not exactly the same as the 148 body style, would probably rate a close enough for a non-trivial proportion of modelers. It was awaiting disposition when photographed in 1962. Wait, that car was numbered 1867, not 817. Oops, almost. A car actually numbered 817 is linked on Jerry Laboda s Passenger Car Photo Index site (URL passcarphotos.info ). It s part of the Otto Perry collection and it s undated and in glorious black and white. This car isn t as close: for one thing, the roof overhangs at least one end, a feature I don t recall seeing elsewhere on a mail/express car. The paint scheme is replicated on the MTL model including the Railway Express Agency legend. This places the start of the possible Approximate Time Period at after 1929 when REA succeeded American Railway Express. It s noted on Laboda s site that the 817 was a baggage / express car rebuilt from a baggage / mail car. The ORPTE for March 1943 shows the series MILW 800 to 843 with 35 cars, described as Express, Steel with length 60 feet and under 70 feet. End notes call out certain cars with either fish racks and end doors or fish racks and wide side doors; the 817 isn t in either of these lists. Fish racks, eh? The last time I remember thinking of fish being carried on trains was the episode of Thomas the Tank Engine called The Flying Kipper. (I think I liked the show more than my children did.) In the January 1953 ORPTE, the dimensions were more explicitly shown as 59 feet 8 inches inside length and 64 feet length over the buffers. I thought the photo illustrated a car that was a bit shorter than the MTL model. Besides the fish racks and doors, it was also end-noted that the cars are equipped with electric lighting fixtures, current coming from locomotive at head end of train. Most of the Milwaukee s passenger equipment had either this or were electric lighted and equipped with axle generator and battery, storage battery or dynamo and battery. The paint scheme drives the ATP here, but finding non-conflicting information on the paint scheme is driving me nuts. The influence of the Union Pacific s changing its partner for 9

service into Chicago to the Milwaukee Road from the Chicago & North Western led to a switch to the UP s paint colors in 1957 and there s mention made online that the simplified scheme of maroon and orange is what that replaced. On the other hand, when the MILW paired-window coach was released by MTL in July 2013, the reference photo was from 1937 and showed in black and white a car that appeared to be in only two colors. It was noted by Denny Anspach on the MILW YahooGroup in 2014 that heavyweight cars were not repainted from whatever scheme they were in starting around 1950, since they weren t expected to remain on the active passenger train roster (a possible exception being commuter service cars). Incremental Information would be most welcome here. In addition to the above, MTL has released a Western Train Set (993 01 440, $219.95). This set includes an Atlas H16-44 diesel locomotive, Road Number 3019, (the same road number as in last year s Weathered ATSF Refrigerator Train Set ), plus a 100 series Maintenance of Way caboose, Western Pacific 50 Foot Double Door Boxcar (034 00 340), Rio Grande Three-Bay Hopper (108 xx 160) and Southern Pacific Drop End Gondola with Woodchip Extension (084 xx 020). The Rio Grande hopper and SP gondola could be drawn from Runner Packs 92 and 111 respectively (meaning the road numbers could differ by set), but the WP boxcar is, according to the MTL database and my information, carrying a road number released in October 2008! I would be quite surprised to learn that there were that many hiding in a corner of the warehouse, so this could (and I mean could) mean MTL snuck in a sort-of reprint specifically for this set. N SCALE REPRINTS: 041 00 030, $21.95 Road Number: 38063 (will be GN 38063 in website listings). 40 Foot Boxcar, Wood Double Sheathed, 1½ Doors, Vertical Brake Staff, Great Northern. Boxcar red with white lettering including roadname and road number on left. Black and white forward-facing goat herald with See America First / Glacier National Park lettering on right. Approximate Time Period: 1923 (build date on car) into the decade of the 1930s. Previous Releases: As Catalog Number 41030, Road Number 38076, November 2001. 10

This is the second of only three roadnames MTL has issued on this body style; will we see the third, Union Pacific, before long? While we await the answer to that question, let s check out this reprint, with some updating from the original November 2001 UMTRR coverage. Call this one a real oldie. Unlike the two other cars in the 041/41000 body style which are very similar to their counterparts in the 043/43000 series, there wasn t a previous release for this car. The closest MTL has come to this particular decoration is the 42191/42080 single door double sheathed boxcar that was done in three numbers with the forward facing goat, most recently in 1990. (The July 2001 release of the 42080 had the side facing goat and was therefore dubbed a not a reprint. ) Judging by the way in which the dimensional data is portrayed on this car, plus the lack of GN reporting marks to go with the roadname, one could surmise that this car predates the 42ers. Not by much, though: if the dimensional data on the 42191/42080 is correct, just by two years, 1923 versus 1925. We reach back to the August 1924 ORER to find 500 cars in the series 38000 to 38499, with MCB Designation XA and description, Box, Auto. Those doors give an opening of 10 feet which is in the close enough realm; I measure a shade under 11 feet on the model. The inside length was 40 feet 6 inches and the outside length 40 feet 9 inches doesn t give much room for the couplers, does it? The inside width was 9 feet, inside height 10 feet and extreme height 15 feet 1¾ inches, and capacity 3645 cubic feet or 80,000 pounds. Although tagged for automobile transport, these cars didn t have end doors, so it would have been up to the freight loaders to squeeze in those motor vehicles using the side doors alone. The forward facing goat went away starting in 1935, so we ll check just the January 1940 ORER as a follow up. And we find a bit of a mess: There is one big series, 32000 to 37299, listed as simply general service box cars with 5 foot 5 inch door openings. My guess is that all of the auto cars were demoted, the auxiliary doors were removed or sealed shut, and the cars thrust into one group, which numbered 4,923 pieces in total! With World War II coming on, I d suspect that this large gang stayed around a while, but not in the form modeled by MTL. So that puts the ATP into a pretty short range, as I ve indicated above. 106 00 220, $23.80 Reporting Marks: WP 6051. 50 Foot 15 Panel Fixed End Gondola with Low Cover, Western Pacific. Black (including cover) with yellow and white lettering including reporting marks on left. Yellow roadname split by orange feather across center of car. Approximate Time Period: early 1960s (1962 rebuild date given by MTL) to late 1970s. Previous Releases: As Catalog Number 106220, Road Number 6053, July 2002; as Catalog Number 106 00 220, Road Number 6055, February 2012. I m going to be really lazy here and mostly reprint myself from the February 2012 coverage of this release really not that long ago, relatively speaking. This is the third run of part two of the story of a WP gondola. Part one is the 46050 / 046 00 050 gondola with silver 11

lettering, most recently issued in October 2011. The prototype for that series 6601 to 6800 dropped from its original 200 cars to 99, but two new series of gondolas appeared in the WP s roster. One of those groups was numbered 6300 to 6400 and were GBS class cars equipped with steel cradles for loading coiled steel strips. The other group included this car, part of a short series 6051 to 6060. The January 1964 ORER lists these ten as AAR Classification GBS, description Gondola, Steel, Wood Floor, Covered and Note MM refers to a three section roof and removable bulkheads that MTL notes as well. In addition, the end doors were welded shut. The inside length was 52 feet 6 inches and the outside length 55 feet 1 inch, so the model is a little short in the body and a little long overall, but not noticeably so. The extreme height was 8 feet 7 inches, which should count the cover. Capacity was 1,745 cubic feet or 140,000 pounds. And part two came with a much more elaborate paint scheme. No plain white roadname here! The large orange feather was sure to garner looks at railroad crossings. This is quite the unusual circumstance for a gondola. Morning Sun s Western Pacific Color Guide to Freight and Passenger Equipment, Page 77, has a photo of WP 6064. It has a different roof and bulkheads but the same snazzy paint scheme, though faded considerably. There s a bingo on the previous road number for this release, 6053, on the previous page of the Color Guide, but its yellow lettering and orange feather have nearly disappeared. The story of what these cars carried is well described in the March 2002 issue of Trains magazine. In the piece Perlman the Magnificent by Harry Bruce, a circa-1972 negotiation is described with respect to WP business with the giant U.S. Steel. The Western Pacific and its much larger rival Southern Pacific were invited to bid on coil steel traffic between Salt Lake and the Bay Area. WP thought it submitted a better overall deal but lost to the SP. That prompted Alfred E. Perlman, legendary railroad figure and then-president of the WP, to fly out to and confront the U.S. Steel management with Bruce, who was working for Perlman at the time. The net effect of the meeting, leaving out all the intrigue, was that WP did pick up some of that steel business, and there you have a use for the covered gondolas. All ten were still around in 1972, and two of the ten lasted into 1981. N SCALE WEATHERED RELEASES: In addition to the below, the Weathered TTX Wind Turbine 3-Pack (993 01 390, $129.95) is scheduled to be available mid-month and should be at MTL dealers as you read this. UMTRR coverage was in the November 2015 issue. The individual car numbers are TTYX 157639, 156563 and 157786; I ll add the individual catalog numbers to the UMTRR Website tables once I receive them. The wind turbine blades require assembly by the modeler, as is shown in the image. 12

The following was announced mid-month via the Micro-Trains website, the MTL Facebook page, and via the e-mail Micro-Trains E-Line, all on or about April 18. 092 44 281, $31.95 Reporting Marks: BNSF 405436. Two Bay Center Flow Covered Hopper, BNSF Railway (Burlington Northern Santa Fe). Base car is gray with yellow conspicuity stripes along bottom. Mostly black lettering including reporting marks on left. Red-orange and black swoosh herald on right. Light weathering; black and multicolor graffiti and spray painted replacement reporting marks on one side matching a prototype photo. Approximate Time Period: at least 2013 but possibly not to present. Previous Releases (in unweathered form): Road Numbers 405426 and 405430, September 2012. As has become a practice from the folks behind the red and yellow sign, Micro-Trains provides the prototype reference photo for this car. It s from March 2013 which gives us the at least ATP. That at least is most likely way too conservative because I m seeing cars around here that clearly haven t had their graffiti addressed in some time: witness, for example, a covered hopper with a large Stop Bush! scrawled on it, which I assume refers to one of the two Presidents with that name, not the recent candidate. At any rate, when the clean version of this car was released in 2012, I was able to trace back the history of this BNSF series of cars. We started with a bingo on BNSF 405426, one of the two clean road numbers, over on RailcarPhotos.com. Its photo was taken in June 2009 and noted as the former BN 419184. Turning to the Burlington Northern Color Guide to Freight Equipment we get a photo of BN 419173 from the series 419100 to 419349 and are told that these cars previously belonged to the Frisco, series SLSF 78500 to 78749, built in 1975. With that, we ll go over to the ORER for January 2006 and find the series BNSF 405353 to 405571 with 106 Covered Hoppers, AAR Designation LO. No inside dimensions are given but the outside length is 41 feet 11 inches, extreme height is 14 feet 10 inches, capacity 2971 cubic feet and gross rail weight (car plus lading) of 263,000 pounds. Skipping straight to the January 2014 Register, we find an increase to 123 cars. However, one of our readers noted when the clean cars were released to say that the 405430 was no longer on the BNSF roster. As these cars are approaching 40 years of age, I d expect fewer to be around, our helper writes. I don t see them around anymore having been replaced in most service by newer, larger, private cars. As was typical when in BN paint, these BNSF cars are in sand service, though many BN cars were also assigned to cement service. That odd number cubic footage is a clue to the fidelity of the MTL 092 body style to the real cars. The American Car & Foundry 2971 was the successor to the 2970 cubic foot model that is the actual prototype for the Micro-Trains release. So I d expect some differences, for example, the shape of the ends of each side. The degree to which this is a stand-in is left to the modeler here. 13

993 05 330, $94.95 Reporting Marks: WC 27006, 27768 and 27270. Wisconsin Central Graffiti Three-Pack. Consists of three 50 foot exterior post boxcars with plug doors. Each car is Wisconsin Central maroon with aluminum roof, yellow conspicuity stripes along bottom and double panel consolidated stencils on right. The first and third cars in the set (27006 and 27270) have yellow Wisconsin Central Ltd. shield on left and stenciled roadname on right, and mostly white lettering otherwise including reporting marks on left, plus graffiti on one side. The second car in the set (27768) has patch panels in a different shade of maroon across side and white lettering including the WCCL shield (partially covered by patch panel) and reporting marks on left and roadname on right. Approximate Time Period: at least 2007 and 2008. Previous Releases: Catalog Number 27200, released in February 1994 and September 2002, has similar lettering to the first and third cars in the set though I m calling them a not a reprint. Individual catalog numbers are: 027 51 200 (27006), 027 52 400 (27768) and 027 53 200 (27270). The MTL-cited prototype photos for these three cars, found on RRPictureArchives.net, were taken in 2007 and 2008 so let s start with the October 2007 ORER. At that time, the 27006 and 27270 were listed in the series 27645 to 27376 and the 27768 was in the group 27750 to 27799. However, the major dimensions were the same: inside length 50 feet 6 inches, inside width 9 feet 6 inches, inside height 10 feet 7 inches, outside length 55 feet 5 inches, extreme height 15 feet, door opening 10 feet, and capacity 5076 cubic feet with Gross Rail Weight 220,000 pounds. As of the October 2014 ORER, the latest I have, there were 158 total cars in the first series and 39 in the second series. This could probably give us a to present ATP. As usual, I m hesitant to call the timeframe out that far since the reference photos are from 2007 and 2008. In fact, there s a second shot of the 27270 on RRPictureArchives as of November 2008 that shows repainting of the bottom of the side, presumably where the graffiti previously was. The ends of the prototype cars don t match with the 027 body style; they are more like the old Dreadnaught ends than what s typically seen on x-post boxcars. They are somewhat like the Fond du Lac boxcars that were built by the Soo Line. That led me to check to see if the Wisconsin Central had picked up these cars from the Soo Line when the WC was spun off. However, that s not the case; the Fond du Lac boxcars have seven ribs (posts) either side of the plug door and the 27006, 27270 and 27768 have five ribs either side of the door. The net of it is that I m not sure whether these were new or pre-owned to the WC. Incremental information is, of course, most welcome. 14

N SCALE RUNNER PACKS: In addition to the below announcement, Runner Pack #115 (993 00 115, $109.95), four BNSF (Burlington Northern Santa Fe) 60 Foot Centerbeam Flat Cars with truss loads, is now available. UMTRR coverage was in the November 2015 issue. The individual catalog numbers and road numbers for these items are as follows: 053 51 070, 559038; 053 52 070, 559040; 053 53 070, 559055; 053 54 070, 559100. These are the second through fifth road numbers for this car. 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 April 30. Scheduled September 2016 Release: 993 00 120, $79.95. Reporting Marks: WP 38130, 38152, 38179, 38210. Quantity four of 50 Foot Exterior Post Boxcars, Double Door, Western Pacific. Brown with mostly white lettering including roadname and reporting marks on left and stylized Feather herald on right. White on black consolidated stencils below last digit of road number on right. Approximate Time Period: 1979 into the decade of the 2000s at least. Previous Releases: as Previous Releases (as Catalog Number 30080): Road Number 38149, February 1984; Road Number 38150, June 1990; Road Number 38154, December 2003. Individual catalog numbers are expected to be 030 5x 080. As long as the folks behind the red and yellow sign are going to be manufacturing quantities of the 030 body style for their Per Diem Series, why not really run up the Economies of Scale with this Runner Pack? And I m personally pleased with this choice; though relatively simple, it s one of my favorite paint schemes on an x-post boxcar. The Western Pacific stylized its famous feather for one more appearance prior to the road s merger into the Union Pacific in 1982. This new image came to the WP in 1979, replacing the large WP that appears on Micro-Trains Catalog 30070 with road number 38025 from February 1984. (Yes, that s the same month as the first run of the 30080.) An article by Jim Eager in the August 2000 issue of Rail Model Journal provided a photo of WP 38093, from the series 38026 to 38125, built in September 1978. The Western Pacific was the only Class 1 railroad to order FMC 5077s. They came with centered double doors in three lots. 38001 [to] 38025 arrived in July 1977, while 38126 [to] 38225 came in October 1979. While the MTL 030/30000 body style is a model of the FMC 5077 cubic foot car, it s with staggered double 15

doors, so there s a delta between model and prototype. Eager also wrote the Western Pacific Color Guide to Freight and Passenger Equipment and there s a shot of WP 38154 as it appeared in March 1981 on Page 38 of that book. It s noted that the cars had end of car cushioning and recessed lading band anchors for lumber loading but were considered to be for general service. George Elwood s Fallen Flags site ( www.rr-fallenflags.org ) has photos of these cars as well. WP 38152 appears in four images: a 1979 shot with two sister cars looking fresh out of the factory in Portland, Oregon, then photos from 2003, 2006 and 2010, the last of which shows the car with graffiti and conspicuity stripes, and still in the original paint but with replacement doors. Just for completeness, there s also WP 38023, among others, in the previous large WP scheme. I m surprised that both paint schemes survived as far as they did into the UP s absorption of the WP, but they did. Let s go to the ORER for April 1981 to find the series 38001 to 38225, of all 225 possible cars described as Box, Steel, Nailable Steel Floor, Lading Strap Anchors, 25K with AAR Classification XM. The inside length was 50 feet 6 inches, inside height 10 feet 7 inches, and door opening 16 feet. The outside length was 57 feet 2 inches so you'll need those extended draft gear trucks. Extreme height was 14 feet 10 inches. The Equipment Register shows the capacity at 5148 cubic feet or 154,000 pounds but the photos in the Rail Model Journal article and the Color Guide show the 5077 cubic foot capacity stenciled right on the car. Although the WP had been bought by the UP by January 1985, the WP still had a separate ORER listing then which showed the series at 222 cars. By the July 1989 Register the WP had been assimilated. The series at that point totaled 213 cars and was split among several subseries by capacity and whether there was a special cushioning device, 107 with and 106 without and simply called Box, Steel. In January 1996 there were 99 cars with the cushioning device and 102 without for a sum of 201, and in the January 2002 ORER there were 117 cars retagged with AAR Class XP and described as Box, Steel, Nailable Steel Floor, Lading Strap Anchors, 50K, Special Cushioning Device plus one stray Box, Steel. Jumping all the way to my latest Equipment Register, October 2014, there remained 26 cars in the series. I m not completely sure I want to call to present on the ATP however. Scheduled Delivery September 2016: 993 00 811, $219.95 Reporting Marks PFE 300143, 300176, 300198, 300200, 300215, 300220, 300237, 300248. Quantity eight of 51 Foot Mechanical Refrigerator Car, Rivet Sides, Pacific Fruit Express. Orange with black ends and aluminum roof. Black lettering including company name and reporting marks on left. Black and white Southern Pacific and Union Pacific heralds on right; on one side, SP herald on left and UP herald on right, on other side, UP herald on left and SP herald on right. Approximate Time Period: 1955 (build date) to mid-1960s (based on paint 16

scheme). Previous Release: Road Number 300217, August 2010. Individual catalog numbers are expected to be 069 5x 190. Since the first release of this particular car I ve acquired for the UMTRR Research Accumulation the second edition of the Signature Press book Pacific Fruit Express by Anthony W. Thompson, Robert J. Church and Bruce H. Jones. The R-70-9 class of cars, in which these PFE road numbers fall, were built in 1955 for the PFE by the Southern Pacific Equipment Company. I usually don t count rivets but I do see that the rivet patterns are different on the prototype than on the model, as are the mechanical refrigerator grilles. The door on the real cars went to the roofline while the MTL model s door stops short of that point. But the PFE book adds something very unusual: these cars had two different ends! The engine compartment end (always the A or non-brake end) was a conventional type Dreadnaught end, while the other end was an early improved Dreadnaught. The reason for this was that only the B end had to resist shifting of the load. At the A end, the task was taken up by an internal, corrugated bulkhead. These cars cost about $20,500 each, not small change in 1955; that s $181,372 each in 2016 dollars according to the Inflation Calculator online. The ORER for January 1955 shows this group as what I call a coming soon entry: tagged as an addition but with no quantity of cars listed yet in the series PFE 300138 to 300337. The dimensions were listed: inside length 44 feet 6 inches, inside width 8 feet 6 inches, inside height 7 feet 3 ½ inches, outside length 52 feet 8 ¾ inches, extreme height 14 feet 6 ½ inches, door opening 6 feet wide by 7 feet 3 ½ inches high, capacity 2758 cubic feet or 130,000 pounds. All 200 cars were in place by the January 1958 ORER which is the next one I have. According to Lee Gautreaux s Railgoat site ( www.railgoat.railfan.net ) 140 cars out of the original series were fitted with meat rails and renumbered to the series 200196 to 200337 in 1963, ending their ATP. A table in the Pacific Fruit Express book confirms this and adds that any R-70-9s still remaining in service in the early 1970s were converted to TIV or Top Ice Vegetable Service; with that change, all mechanical refrigeration equipment was removed. In addition to this, the PFE was rather fastidious with maintenance and decoration of its equipment. As I noted with the first release of this car, I saw plenty of PFE cars from my apartment window in Jersey City, and they carried not the scheme MTL chose but instead the later big billboard Pacific Fruit Express in all black. So I m somewhat arbitrarily cutting off the Approximate Time Period at the mid-1960s, although there could always be exceptions here and there that lasted longer. On the Railgoat site there is a shot of sister car 300166 as found in 1972, with the big Pacific Fruit Express that I remember from my early childhood. 17

N SCALE SPECIAL EDITION RELEASES: 049 00 240, $24.95 Reporting Marks: EBC 5021. 40 Foot Wood Double Sheathed Refrigerator Car, Vertical Brake Staff, Elwood s Root Beer. Brown roof and ends, yellow sides, black door detail. Black lettering Elwood s Root Beer and J.O. Elwood Beverage Company on left and reporting marks on right. Red 5 with black outline on right. White end markings. Approximate Time Period: The Billboard Refrigerator Era, but see text. Previous Release: Road Number 500, October 1986. This car was also released in 1998 with Road Number 502 in the N Scale Collector 7 th Anniversary Three-Pack, NSC Number 98-23. Wait, what? This is a fantasy scheme? I thought it was just another Billboard Refrigerator Car from that time period when I was growing up. A 2005 post on Trainorders.com addresses this question: In the 1950 s my father, Bill Pirie, invented, designed, and drew an HO Elwood s Root Beer refrigerator car for M. Dale Newton s Red Ball Manufacturing Co. in Medford, Oregon. You might recall that Pirie, McNabb and Simon Brewing Company was, er, credited with Guzlit Beer, another just-for-fun car that was also originated by Red Ball and begat Micro-Trains own Burp-Oh Beer. So there s a connection. Well, Elwood s Root Beer sure got around after that in model railroading, with renditions in multiple scales on both 40 foot and 36 foot cars. The brand name appears among many on the Root Beer World site described as an antique brand. I m not sure I have the heart to tell them the truth. 139 00 250, $32.95 Ringling Brothers Heavyweight Series #8, 70 Foot Circus Flat Car with Dragon Wagon. Red with yellow road number (218) outlined in black at left and right. Yellow lettering outlined in black in blue panel at center: Ringling Bros and Barnum & Bailey. What can I say about dragons? Really nothing about their appearance in circuses, unless we re talking about costumed players! But plenty otherwise, actually, and I can leverage research of a very different kind this time. I created and gave a presentation called the Numismatic Zoo for several different groups in the area in 2009 and again in 2012, beginning with the Rochester Numismatic Association of which I was an officer for a couple of years. Numismatics is better known as coin collecting, and there exist a very, very large number of coins which feature animals, both real and legendary. (Several have my beloved Pegasus, the symbol of poetic inspiration.) I talked about dragons with respect to coins, but also provided a few bullet points on the mythical animal as well: 18

- Dragons are depicted in various ways by various cultures - One example is the number of legs they had: 0, 2, 4, millions (Greek) - They re revered in some Eastern cultures as a symbol of nature, wisdom, and power - Persians believed that a dragon takes on the color of its mother s eyes - The St. George and the Dragon legend appears in countries other than the United Kingdom Of course, there s the Year of the Dragon in the twelve year Chinese Cycle; our daughter Thalia Elizabeth is a Dragon by that reckoning. Persons born in the Year of the Dragon are said to be magnanimous, stately, strong, noble, and direct. There are multiple element dragons in Chinese Mythology: Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, and Water. Among coins that feature the creature, the British St. George and the Dragon is probably the best known, and it appears on gold coins including the Sovereign (image at right). However, as with many hobbies, it s not necessary to spend a lot to accumulate a lot, and many coins in the Numismatic Zoo were definitely from the Bargain Bin. Considering that I briefly returned to coin collecting when Thalia became interested in it, a small budget was a large consideration. In addition to the above, the U.S. Marshall and Sheriff Wagon 2-Pack (470 00 239, $39.95) is scheduled to be available mid-month and should be at MTL dealers as you read this. NARROW GAUGE (Nn3) RELEASES: No releases this month. Z SCALE NEW RELEASES: 506 00 321 and 506 00 322, $26.70 each. Reporting Marks: SP 210036 and 210256. 50 Foot Steel Boxcars, Double Door, Southern Pacific. Brown (including trucks and couplers) with white lettering including roadname and road number on left. Black and white circular Southern Pacific Lines herald on right. Approximate Time Period: 1956 to early 1970s at least. The following is reprinted from the coverage of the N Scale release which appeared in the September 2014 UMTRR: 19

Page 13 of the Southern Pacific Color Guide to Freight and Passenger Equipment Volume Two provides the bingo to SP 210036. The photo was taken sometime during the mid-1960s and shows a car quite a bit more brown looking than the MTL model. Blame that on weathering. The cars did have riveted sides, a delta to the MTL 034 body style, but that s apparent only from close inspection of the images. The side sills on the real car are inset a bit more than usual into the underframe. These class A-50-18 Automobile cars were built by the Southern Pacific Equipment Company during 1954 and 1955 and were originally numbered from 193000 to 193999. During 1956, renumbering into the group 209548 to 210547 began. According to the Color Guide, the series was cut back to 209548 to 210372 in 1966. The last two cars were gone by the January 1978 Official Railway Equipment Register (ORER). Speaking of ORERs, let s check the January 1958 edition. By that issue only 33 cars had been moved to the 209548 to 210547 series. They were described simply as Box, All Steel with AAR Designation XM, with inside length 50 feet 6 inches, inside height 10 feet 6 inches, outside length 51 feet 10 inches, extreme height 15 feet 1 inch, door opening 15 feet and capacity 4963 cubic feet or 100,000 pounds. In the July 1963 Register the car count was up to 311, and in the January 1967 ORER the shorter series 209457 (not 209548 as stated in the Color Guide) to 210372 held 612 boxcars. The 209548 to 210372 series had just eleven cars as of July 1974. You might be properly wondering about the paint scheme for these cars. The SP switched to their large roadname and gothic reporting marks well before the removal of these cars from the roster, so wouldn t there have been a quicker end to the Approximate Time Period? Well, it depends. Back in the Color Guide, there s a shot of SP 209658 as of August 1971, with not only the paint scheme depicted by MTL but also with full ladders and the roofwalk intact. Online there is a shot of SP 210365 also as of August 1971, on Lee Gautreaux s website (URL www.railgoat.railfan.net ). It seems that the older these cars got, the more brown they looked, something to keep in mind if you re modeling the 1960s or early 1970s. 510 00 320, $27.95 Reporting Marks: WVRC 8161. 50 Foot Steel Exterior Post Boxcar, Single Door, Wabash Valley Railroad. #3 in the MTL Z Scale Per Diem Boxcar Series. Yellow with black lettering including reporting marks on left and roadname on right. Red and white herald left of door. Double panel consolidated stencils at lower right. Approximate Time Period: 1979 ( new date on car) to no later than 1981. Please see the coverage of the N Scale release (025 00 910) above. 20

520 00 201 and 520 00 202, $22.90 each Reporting Marks: B&O 11110 and 11116. 40 Foot Despatch Stock Cars, Baltimore and Ohio. Freight car red (the B&O s Iron SequiOxide ) with white lettering including reporting marks on left and roadname right. Arch bar trucks. Approximate Time Period: 1915 (build date on car) to early 1930s. Please see the coverage of the N Scale releases (035 00 24x) above. In addition to the above, the Canadian National Passenger Cars which were originally scheduled for March release are now available and so are their official photos, which are here. UMTRR coverage was in the October 2015 issue. 550 00 140, $32.90 Lightweight Sleeper, Greenwich. 551 00 140, $32.90 Lightweight Dome Car, No Road Number or Name. 552 00 140, $32.90 Lightweight Coach, Road Number 5547. 553 00 140, $32.90 Lightweight Baggage Car, Road Number 9603. 21

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 April 30. 994 01 150, $109.95 ATSF (Santa Fe) Passenger Car 4-Pack. Expected to consist of the following items: 550 Series Lightweight Sleepers, Sweetwater Valley and Surprise Valley. 552 Series Lightweight Coach, Road Number 3071. 553 Series Lightweight Baggage Car, Road Number 3918. All cars are silver with black lettering including Santa Fe roadname at top center and car name or road number at bottom center, except for baggage car which has Baggage / Railway Express Agency at bottom center and road number at bottom right. Sleepers and coach have faded black stripes simulating corrugations ( shadow-striping ). Approximate Time Period: mid-1940s into the 1950s, except the baggage car, which is 1965 to 1970. Preliminary artwork shown; actual product may vary. Individual catalog numbers are TBD. After pre-orders for individual passenger cars in the last two roadnames, MTL has announced a set for a change of pace. We ll cover each of the three body styles in turn note that there s no dome car this time. According to the Santa Fe Railway Historical and Modeling Society Website ( atsfrr.net ), Santa Fe ordered 26 of the Valley series smoothside Sleepers as Lot 6669, Plan 4099, for delivery in 1942. This plan is the same as the Union Pacific s American series, also build by Pullman-Standard which means that we should have a really good match to the MTL 550 series for these cars. For a bit more on this group, check the Pullman Shops website (direct URL www.pullmanshops.com/atsfvalley.htm ). Just in case you d like to know what the Valley cars were named: Antelope Valley Blue Valley, Chama Valley, Cimarron Valley, Citrus Valley, Cottonwood Valley, Eagle Nest Valley, Estancia Valley, Hidden Valley, Kaw Valley, Mescalero Valley, Monument Valley, Paradise Valley, Pecos Valley, Pleasant Valley, Redondo Valley, Red River Valley, Red Rock Valley, Rio Grande Valley, Salt River Valley, San Miguel Valley, Sunshine Valley, Surprise Valley, Sweetwater Valley, Taos Valley, Tesuque Valley, Verde Valley, and Whitewater Valley. Of these, the Verde Valley was preserved; there s information about it and some interior photos as well on the site of the Houston Railroad Museum, where the car is at 22

present (direct URL www.texasrrmuseum.org/roster/valley.html ). Now, if only there were decals which would work for the other 24 names The Coach 3071 has no less than four different images on Jerry Laboda s Passenger Car Photos Index ( passcarphotos.info ) which at this writing occupy the last four slots of Page Two of Jerry s Santa Fe passenger car citations. All four of these images show the 3071 in a different paint scheme, the last of which is the one MTL chose (more on shadow-striping shortly). The photo, part of the J.L. Whitmeyer collection, is dated 1948. The 3071 was built by St. Louis Car Company and there s a builder s photo among the four images. The 552 body style is based on a Pullman-Standard design and it s not a perfect match in terms of number and spacing of windows. The baggage car was a real surprise. I ll just quote from the Santa Fe Subjects site (URL atsf.railfan.net ): Santa Fe steam generator car 139 was one of ten self-contained steam generator cars built by the Topeka Shops in 1970. The car was built from ATSF 3918, one of Santa Fe s 73 foot 11 inch long Pullman Standard smooth-side baggages built in 1965. There s a photo of the former 3918 on this page as well, as it appears as the 139. A photo of sister car 140, later 138, which was rebuilt from baggage car 3931, appears on Page 7 of the ATSF Color Guide to Freight and Passenger Equipment. It s noted there that the steam generator cars accompanied the line s usually freight-only F45 diesels on trains in the waning days of Santa Fe s service. If, like me, you re surprised that the ATSF would still be acquiring cars in 1965, I ll quote again from the Color Guide: Suffice to say, that Santa Fe bought new passenger cars in 1964, when most American railroads were busily seeking ways to discontinue their passenger service. The usual question about a common ATP across a Micro-Trains set, however, is answered with a no here. That s driven partially by the unusually late date of the build of the baggage car, but also by the general timeframe of the use of shadow-striping. That was the technique of adding stripes to a smoothside car to make it look like the corrugated stainless steel cars to which it might have been coupled. The effect is quite good in some images, the one of the 3071 I cited above for example. Both lightweight and heavyweight cars received shadow-striping; an example of a heavyweight car which was painted that way was Observation Car #1509 which is now at the Pacific Southwest Railway Museum. The practice was in use from about 1940 to about 1950, depending on which source you use. A rather exhaustive chronology of Santa Fe key dates (eighteen pages of them!) gives 1953 to 1971 - Many [passenger] cars repainted to all gray scheme with most roofs black but some aluminum. To help illustrate the point, I found a photo of Surprise Valley as it appeared in May 1965, in gray, not in shadow striping. Z SCALE REPRINTS: No releases this month. 23

Z SCALE WEATHERED RELEASES: The following was announced mid-month via the Micro- Trains website, the MTL Facebook page, and via the e-mail Micro-Trains E-Line, all on or about April 18. 500 44 790, $25.60 Reporting Marks: BM 76038. 40 Foot Steel Boxcar, Single Superior Door, Boston & Maine. Blue with black panel to right of door. White lettering including reporting marks on left. Large white and blue McGuiness era B in M herald on right. Light weathering and Hobo Tagging right of door. Approximate Time Period: late 1950s (1957 build date) to late 1960s at least. Previous Releases (in unweathered form): Runner Pack #76 (994 00 076), April 2015, with Road Numbers 76029, 76038, 76047, 76156. Note: It s possible but not confirmed that any of the four Runner Pack cars could have been utilized for this Weathered Release. The hobo language varies somewhat so I might not be perfect on this, but the closest match I found to the Hobo Sign that s added to this car is Fresh Water and a Safe Campsite. That fits with the word Jungle which refers to the Hobo Jungle, a slang term for a campsite. There are multiple citations available for Hobo Jungle online. Some were more permanent than others. Many were located near active railroad lines to allow for easy hopping of freight trains. These camps included dry, safe places to sleep on the ground, shade and good water. A guiding principle of some of the larger sites was to leave them as you found them especially if there were pots, pans and other utensils and the means to build cooking fires. The film Kit Kittredge: An American Girl had several scenes which took place in a hobo jungle; while that s without a doubt not the most famous movie partially set there, it s one I recall since I took my daughter to see it. As with the previous Hobo Tagging car, last month s Southern Railway open hopper, the Approximate Time Period for this release is probably a bit too new for this type of graffiti strictly speaking, of course. The group of PS-1 boxcars from which the Runner Pack road numbers were delivered in 1957, well past the peak, if you will, of Hobo Jungles. 511 44 191, $64.95 Reporting Marks: BNSF 712979 and 712981. Burlington Northern Santa Fe Graffiti Two-Pack. Consists of two 50 foot exterior post boxcars with plug doors. Both are brown with mostly white lettering including reporting marks on left and BNSF wedge herald (aka swoosh ) on right. Yellow conspicuity stripes along bottom of sides Light weathering; multicolor graffiti on 24

bottom of side of each car. Approximate Time Period: 2005 (introduction of herald) to present. Previous Release (in unweathered form): Road Number 712981 (same road number as one of these cars), June 2013. Individual Catalog Numbers: 511 51 190 (the 712979) and 511 52 190 (the 712981). I m mostly copy and pasting here from the June 2013 clean release, particularly since the road number is reused! The paint scheme looks good versus a bingo on this car as of 2007 on RailcarPhotos.net, though the car itself appears to be larger than the MTL 511 body style. Continuing on that site, we find that the series BNSF 712961 to 713095 is a former ATSF set of boxcars, Class BX-180, numbered 501799 to 501899. Proving that out, BNSF 712970 as of August 2007 still has the small Santa Fe circle cross in the top left hand corner with just restenciled reporting marks and what s arguably become the usual amount of graffiti. The cars were built by Berwick Forge and Fabricating in 1976 as their lot 33000 and are within Plate E dimensions. So yeah, they re larger than the MTL model. Other photos of cars in this group show the BNSF circle cross, or no herald at all. The ORER for January 2011 shows a total of 116 cars in service for BNSF. The cars have these key dimensions: inside length 50 feet 6 inches, inside width 9 feet 4 inches, inside height 11 feet, outside length 58 feet, extreme height 15 feet 9 inches, door opening 10 feet 6 inches, capacity 5194 cubic feet, and gross rail weight 263,000 pounds. I can update that count, well, downward, to 90 cars in the October 2014 Equipment Register. Z SCALE RUNNER PACKS: In addition to the below announcement, Runner Pack #90 (994 00 090, $114.95), four Railbox 50 Foot Exterior Post Combination Door Boxcars, is now available. UMTRR coverage was in the November 2015 issue. The individual catalog and road numbers for these are as follows: 512 51 020, 50006; 512 52 020, 50012; 512 53 020, 50073; 512 54 020, 50110. These are the first through fourth road numbers for this car, which hasn t been previously released. 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 April 30. Scheduled September 2016 Release: 994 00 095, $89.95. Reporting Marks BCOL 1906, 1910, 1918, 1924. Quantity four of 39 Foot Single Dome Tank Cars, British Columbia Railway. Green with mostly white lettering including reporting marks on left and roadname on 25