Micro-Stories: "If You Knew Susie"
©2000 George J. Irwin. All rights reserved. Legal Stuff
The January 2000 reprint release of the 20670 "Susie-Q" 40 foot single door box car brought back memories of one of the first Micro-Trains cars I purchased. At the time, I was still living in New Jersey, and one of my goals was to accumulate a car from each of the rail lines that was in operation in the Garden State. Pennsylvania, New York Central, Erie Lackawanna... easy. Susquehanna? Not so easy. So when I saw the blister-packed kit (!) for the first Micro-Trains release of a Susquehanna box car, I grabbed it immediately. It didn't look quite the same, as you can see...
This car is actually catalog number 20300, released back in July 1981. You can see that "Susie-Q" isn't much more than an outline of herself in this iteration. (Even so, it's a desirable car among the collector set and rarely hits the aftermarket. Sorry, mine's a "runner"!)
And here is a good example of how far Micro-Trains has come since the earlier days. This is the first road number of Catalog 20670, which was released in November 1992. Besides the full color "Susie-Q," there are also end markings on this one, and less "generic" dimensional data.
Finally, here's the reprint from January 2000. The differences are more subtle: "Susie-Q" is sharper and the color seperations are more defined. The "SUSQUEHANNA" roadname is sharper as well, and more ornate than in the 1992 release. I don't know for sure, but I'd say that the artwork was completely redone. Finally, the green body color is a couple of shades darker, more toward the "pine green" that I'm familiar with on the prototype. That's what we've come to expect from M/T, though, and they haven't disappointed. Compare this with the first "outline" run!