Oct 2011 announcements

Chicago & Illinois Western 3-bay offset side hoppers. Chicago & Illinois Western was a shortline with 33 miles of track serving a number of large industries in Harvester, Hawthorne, and Gary in the greater Chicago area. Illinois Central took stock control of the C&IW in 1924 but the shortline remained a separate operation with their own locomotives and freight cars. IC influence can be seen in the C&IW’s lettering style which is very similar to IC’s pre-1967 practices. Speaking of which, the wonky spacing in the lettering is prototypical for these cars. It looks as if they had all the stencils for “Chicago,” “Illinois,” and “Western” spaced perfectly and then realized they left out the “&.” This run will be available in 3 road numbers. 73531 Chicago & Illinois Western single car $21.79; 73532 2-Pack $43.58.

Grand Trunk Western (post-1962) 3-bay offset side hoppers. Grand Trunk Western received 500 of these hoppers from American Car & Foundry in 1952. While parent CN introduced their “noodle” logo in 1960, the GTW version appeared in 1962 and was applied to the now decade old hoppers as they were shopped. GTW moved coal from connecting roads to power Michigan’s voracious auto industry, and also loaded significant quantities of gravel (for use in construction across the Industrial Midwest) on their Saginaw Subdivision. This run will be available in 6 road numbers and comes with “coal” loads. The loads can be easily painted if you prefer to model cars in gravel service. 73541 Grand Trunk Western (post-1962) single car $21.79; 73542 2-Pack $43.58; 73543 3-Pack $65.37.

Illinois Central Gulf 3-bay offset side hoppers. Illinois Central was quite a fan of 3-bay offset side hoppers and continued to build them into the late ‘60s. In 1972, IC merged with the largely parallel Gulf Mobile & Ohio
creating Illinois Central Gulf. The combined railroad was immense with 9,500 route miles (about 60 more than Union Pacific during the same period.) As the old IC hoppers were shopped during the ‘70s, they emerged in this scheme complete with then standard ACI bar codes and con-stencils. This run will be available in 6 road numbers. 73551 Illinos Central Gulf single car $21.79; 73552 2-Pack $43.58; 73553 3-Pack $65.37.

Chicago Milwaukee St. Paul & Pacific 3-bay offset side hoppers. Prior to 1953 the railroad popularly known as Milwaukee Road used their full name “Chicago Milwaukee St. Paul and Pacific” inside their familiar tilted
rectangle logo. Milwaukee Road became a major originator of coal traffic in 1921 with the acquisition of the Chicago Terre Haute Southeastern. This extended Milwaukee’s reach into the coal mining regions of Southern Indiana. In addition, MILW served mines in Iowa, Illinois, Montana and even Washington. This run will be available in 6 road numbers. 73561 CMSt.P&P single car $21.79; 73562 2-Pack $43.58; 73563 3-Pack $65.37.

Pere Marquette 3-bay offset side hoppers. First of all for those not familiar with this line, it’s PERE (pronounced like Pair, not Pierre as in South Dakota. Pere is French for “Father.”) Pere Marquette connected much of Michigan with Chicago, Toledo, and (via Southern Ontario) Buffalo, New York. They also interchanged with Wisconsin roads via car ferries across Lake Michigan. Sporting around 2,000 route miles, Pere Marquette was between Rio Grande and Nickel Plate Road in relative size. In 1927, PM received 250 of these 3-bay offset side hoppers. In 1947, Pere Marquette was merged into Chesapeake & Ohio. However, due in part to its location and in part to the nature of equipment assignments during this era, there was little visible evidence that C&O had taken over for more than a decade! This run will be available in 3 road numbers. 73571 Pere Marquette single car $21.79; 73572 2-Pack $43.58.

Santa Fe (AUTO PARTS) 86’ boxcars. Just in time for Christmas of 1967, Santa Fe received this batch of Santa-Suit-Red boxcars from Pullman Standard. Okay, it’s actually “Santa Fe Indian Red." These included the big “AUTO PARTS” lettering that would be omitted from cars delivered in later years. These cars were assigned to the New York Central agent in Monroe, Michigan for the loading of Ford body panels. The red with silver doors and roof and black and white ends make this car really stand out. This run will
be available in 3 roadnumbers. 86491 Santa Fe (AUTO PARTS) single car $29.85; 86492 2-Pack $59.70.

Southern (Serves The South/Super Cushion Service) 86’ boxcars. Southern received these cars from Pullman Standard in the Summer of 1966 in this paint scheme. This group was initially assigned for loading at Ford’s stamping plant on the N&W (previously Wabash) in Buffalo, New York (note the “BUFF” below the road number.) Southern’s inclusion in this multi-railroad pool of cars was based on having a Ford assembly plant on their line in Georgia. However, Southern cars in this pool could move stampings from the Buffalo plant to any Ford plant anywhere in the country as demand required. This is typical of how auto-parts car pools operated. This run will be available in 3 roadnumbers. 86501 Southern (Serves The South/Super Cushion Service) single car $29.85; 86502 2-Pack $59.70.

Arkansas & Missouri 86’ boxcar. Arkansas & Missouri launched operations in 1986 as a spin-off of Burlington Northern. The line runs 140 miles from Fort Smith, Arkansas to Monett, Missouri. This was originally a Frisco route. A&M is notable for its all-Alco diesel fleet and seasonal passenger excursions. A&M has no auto parts traffic but does service a paper mill and it is thought these big cars are used for moving low density paper products. This run will be available in just one roadnumber. 86511 Arkansas & Missouri single car $29.85. (That’s right, no 2-pack for this run.)