34310, $27.30 - 50 Foot Box Car, Double Sliding Door (Youngstown Door), Union Pacific. Yellow sides, aluminum roof, ends, sills, trucks and draft gear. Black lettering including reporting marks on left. Multicolor "Campbell Soup" herald on left and "Automated Rail Way" map herald on right. Reporting Marks: UP 160157. Approximate Time Period: early 1960's (1962 build date given by MTL). NOTE: This item has been sold out and discontinued.© 2003 George J. Irwin. All rights reserved. Reposting prohibited.

I'm just tickled to see that the very short-lived "Campbell Soup Shield" of the UP has been memorialized by Micro-Trains. Licensing pass-through or not, more on that later. First, I think I'd better explain this somewhat odd naming of "Campbell's Soup Shield" to those of you who live outside of the United States (although I think Campbell's is sold in Canada and elsewhere too.) The reference is to the label of the extensive line of Campbell's condensed soup, which is red on top and white on the bottom. That label has been around since 1898 and is itself based on the red and white uniforms of Cornell University. The red and white cans were depicted as part of the very first streetcar advertising ever in New York City-- see, you knew I'd get back to trains, right? Campbell's was among the first to advertise nationally as well, and by the decade of the 1900's the brand was known across the country. Although now diversified into many different types of food products, Campbell's premier product remains to this day its line of condensed soups. © 2003 George J. Irwin. All rights reserved. Reposting prohibited.

So it's not surprising that when the Union Pacific bowed its own red on top, white on the bottom herald (if I may call it that) as a replacement for the venerable red, white and blue shield, it was immediately tagged with the "Campbell Soup" moniker. I'm not sure that was good. I'd say the UP didn't think it was good either. According to the railroad's official website, the design was introduced in 1962 and dropped in 1963, with the line returning to the 1950 version of the traditional UP shield. There were actually two versions of this attempt! The first had thinner lettering and a smaller roadname, and the second had a white inlay on the "U.P." above and below, the roadname in what even UP calls "redrawn in a quirky but much bolder lettering." There is a small but discernable photo of the very car UP 160157 that MTL modeled on the UP website alongside this explanation, but get this-- it appears to have the top half of the second design and the bottom half of the first design! By December 1962 this design and the whole idea of making boxcars reminscient of soup cans was tossed. Wise choice, Uncle Pete. But it does get you a very short Approximate Time Period, since, as we know, this is one road that's pretty good at repainting rolling stock in a timely manner. Especially high profile Armour Yellow boxcars. © 2003 George J. Irwin. All rights reserved. Reposting prohibited.

MTL helps my lookup cause by disclosing that the car is part of the series 160150 to 160181 built in 1962, so without delay we can check the January 1964 edition of the Official Railway Equipment Register (ORER). This group of just 13 cars was given AAR Classification "XME" and description "Box, Steel, Cushion Underframe, Staggered Doors." Note Z declared that the cars had side wall lading anchors. The inside length of the cars was 50 feet 6 inches, inside height 10 feet 6 inches, outside length 52 feet even, extreme height 15 feet even, and door opening 15 feet even. That last stat indicates a "door thing" of minor proportion since the MTL 34000 body style has a 16 foot opening. The capacity was 4955 cubic feet or 100,000 pounds. This is the only ORER I checked, since although the cars remained into the 1970's at least, the paint scheme most likely did not. © 2003 George J. Irwin. All rights reserved. Reposting prohibited.

106230, $15.10 - 50 Foot 15 Panel Gondola with Fixed Ends and Low Cover, Chicago and North Western. Black with aluminum stirrups and cover. White lettering including reporting marks on left and herald on right. Reporting Marks: CNW 89000. Approximate Time Period: mid-1960's (1966 build date given by MTL) to late 1990's at least.
NOTE: This item has been sold out and discontinued. © 2003 George J. Irwin. All rights reserved. Reposting prohibited.

I didn't think I would find a photo reference on the 'net for these cars, but as it turned out, nothing to it; there's a shot of sister car 89060 by Darrell Sawyer on his NorthWest Rail Pics site. It's definitely a 15 panel gondola, definitely has fixed ends, and definitely has a cover. The details are a bit different between photo and model; the first one I noticed was the placement of the brake wheel, a bit lower than it is on the MTL 106000 body style. What had me worried was the apparent height of the prototype car versus the model, but I needed to go to the ORER to check that out first, and then to an N Scale ruler. © 2003 George J. Irwin. All rights reserved. Reposting prohibited.

And actually we appear to be OK there too. The April 1970 Register calls out the series 89000 to 89089 with an inside height of 5 feet 8 inches and an extreme height of 11 feet 8 inches. I measured a previous covered gon release and its dimensions are close enough, maybe a little less tall overall depending on how you call it. It's the length that's actually more of an issue than the height, as the prototype was of inside length 52 feet 6 inches and outside length 58 feet which is more than the MTL gons are. The "Hydraulic Cushioning" stenciling on the model also appears on the prototype car, as does extended draft gear trucks. Changing to MTL's version will help get you closer to that 58 feet prototype length. The car capacity was 2494 cubic feet or 150,000 pounds. The GBSR designation is right on for this fleet; I commend someone in the R&D Department for doing their homework on the car copy explanation. © 2003 George J. Irwin. All rights reserved. Reposting prohibited.

By the April 1981 Register there's a slight drop to 86 cars in the series. Ten years later, in October 1991, there is a mess. There are no less than twenty-one different subgroups made out of this fleet! Twenty-five remain in the main series and have been uprated to 198,000 pounds capacity. The rest were relisted as just "Gondola" as opposed to the full length "Gondola, Steel, Cushion Underframe, Fixed Ends, Plain Bottom, Wood Floor, 25K." It looks like of those, twenty-two were further relieved of their covers and reclassed as AAR designation "GB" while the rest kept the "GBSR" designation. The capacities are all over the place. If you're wondering how the ORERs went from being small telephone directory sized in the 1960's and 1970's, to Manhattan telephone directory sized in the 1980's and beyond... well, there goes your answer. Darrell Sawyer's photo of CNW 89060 is copyrighted 1997 so I figured we're good at least to that point; to validate, I checked the October 1996 listing and actually located the 89000 MTL selected to model among the twenty-seven lines that covered this group. It hadn't lost its cover, either. One last check in the January 2002 ORER shows 32 cars left in three subseries, apparently some with covers and some without. I can't tell you specifically whether the 89000 was still around or whether it was covered or not at that point. Given the incredible beating that even special service gondolas get, I think the paint would have had it by then so I'll be conservative and cut off the ATP at the late 1990's. Based on consolidated stencils and such, the "strictly speaking" ATP would be shorter. © 2003 George J. Irwin. All rights reserved. Reposting prohibited.

113020, $15.95 - 40 Foot Skeleton Log Car. Black body, no lettering. Comes with cast resin "Load B" of five Cedar Logs. Approximate Time Period: Most of the 20th Century, more or less. NOTE: This item is sold out and discontinued.

The book "Rails in the North Woods" was added to the UMTRR Library a few years ago, pretty much on a whim. This 1978 volume (still available at least in paperback) focuses on nine companies that had shortline operations in the Adirondack Region of New York, one of which still survives today (the Lowville and Beaver River). While there were other purposes for these shortlines' existence, a key reason for their building was logging. Hardwoods don't float well down rivers, so to harvest those, some other form of transportation was necessary. For example, the Rich Lumber Company set up near Cranberry Lake, around 1902. Photos of the operation in the book show Shay locomotives easing down track which used rough cut logs for crossties. Connection was made with the New York Central, but the firm had a sawmill and other processing right there at the site so the Central received more "finished goods" like board lumber. Hardwoods such as maple, spruce and beech were among the logs taken. Conservation was not a key word in those days, and the tract of land was cleared of all useful lumber by 1910 or so, after which the Rich Lumber Company moved on. © 2003 George J. Irwin. All rights reserved. Reposting prohibited.

The first release of the skeleton log car in December 2002 came with "Load 1" which was of large cedar logs more common to the western part of the country. For this release, MTL moves East for "Load B" which is a group of ten hardwood logs. As I mentioned last time, my limit of tree knowledge is that I can tell an evergreen from a deciduous, and that's about it. So a quick trip to the Hardwood Council website informed me that among types of hardwoods are Red Alder, Ash, Aspen, Basswood, Beech, Yellow Birch, Cherry, Cottonwood, Red Elm, Gum, Hackberry, Hickory and Pecan, Hard and Soft Maple, Red and White Oak, Poplar, Sassafras, Sycamore, Black Walnut and Willow, and sometimes Cypress (technically a softwood but treated as a hardwood in processing). On further review, we find that Ash grows in the Eastern United States and to a diameter of between two and five feet, so the load MTL includes could be of those. The Hard Maple is the state tree of New York, and I think what's growing in my front yard. When I say I don't know what I'm talking about with respect to trees, I mean it! © 2003 George J. Irwin. All rights reserved. Reposting prohibited.

MTL also notes on their website that these cars are "great for HOn30 modelers too;" that's a reference to HO narrow gauge equipment that runs on N Scale track. It's a compromise of sorts that can get HO folks started in slim gauge easily; there weren't many 2 1/2 foot narrow gauge lines extant in real life. © 2003 George J. Irwin. All rights reserved. Reposting prohibited.

116010.1, 116010.2, 116010.3, $18.55; Troop Sleeper Cars. Pullman green with black roof. Yellow lettering including "Pullman" across top, "Troop Sleeper" across bottom, and road number on bottom left and bottom right. Comes with simulated windows, diaphragms and interiors. Road Numbers: 9010 (the .1), 9153 (the .2), and 9426 (the .3). Also: June 2003 releases: .4, Road Number 9082 and .5, Road Number 9340. Approximate Time Period: 1943 through about 1950. NOTE: These items have been sold out and discontinued.

118010, $17.70 - Troop Kitchen Car. Pullman green with black roof. Yellow lettering including "Troop Kitchen Car" across top, and road number at bottom left and bottom right. Comes with simulated windows, diaphragms and interiors. Road Number: K-100. Approximate Time Period: 1943 through about 1950. NOTE: This item has been sold out and discontinued.

The dark of night, or perhaps the break of day. The young recruit is steadfast, if a bit nervous in anticipation, as he and hundreds of his cohorts assemble for the trip to their first, or their next, destination. Pulling into the camp is a set of locomotives, made as clean as possible given that they have been overworked and have had little time for non-necessities like a thorough cleaning. Behind the motive power is a troop train. Some officers might board the Pullman passenger cars that have been pressed into service from long and short distance civilian trains. Others, like our soldier, are marched farther back to a piece of rolling stock that more resembles a boxcar with windows than a passenger car. Once inside, the soldier sees that there are bunks three high inside, the lowest of which is converted to a bench for seating during the day. As cramped as it may appear, at least he knows that the bunk will be his. He's not sure how comfortable it will be. The thought is a very brief one, though. What lies ahead, he knows as the train starts moving, is the great unknown. What will be the final destination for this trip, and what happens next? The questions are certainly in the minds of many soldiers in many troop sleepers, no matter what the day or hour. © 2003 George J. Irwin. All rights reserved. Reposting prohibited.

I had thought that perhaps there wouldn't be that much on troop sleepers on the Internet, or in recent print. Wrong! There are references in cyberspace to the cars themselves, previously released models in other scales, and the experiences of some WWII vets riding in troop sleepers on the way to somewhere else. Meanwhile, Kalmbach has done not one but three different articles in the last two years. First, as part of its extensive coverage of "World War II: Railroading's Finest Hour" in the Winter 2001 edition of "Classic Trains," there are eight pages devoted to the cars' history. That's followed up by articles and drawings of the sleeper and kitchen car in the December 2001 and February 2002 issues of Model Railroader. With prototype information like that at their (and our) fingertips, I suspect that MTL will have gotten the dimensions of these cars down to the gnat's eyelash, or at least to the satisfaction of most people. © 2003 George J. Irwin. All rights reserved. Reposting prohibited.

MTL's car copy captures the overall story of these cars well. In summary, the troop cars were built in two groups totaling 2400 cars. The first set was numbered 7000 to 8199 and was constructed from October 1943 to March 1944, and the second set was numbered 8300 to 8499 and 9000 to 9999 and built from October 1945 to May 1946. The 800 kitchen cars were built by American Car and Foundry from October 1943 to March 1944, and numbered K-100 to K-499 and K-600 to K-999. Yes, that means that troop sleepers didn't exist for much of World War II. That explains why there were so many "miltary surplus" available to be sold to railroads after hostilities ceased. Although thoroughly deployed while in service, they still were hardly "well used" especially compared to the old, tired equipment that the railroads had to hang onto from before the war. There were all sorts of jobs given to the second hand equipment, some of which can possibly be captured by MTL in future releases. For example, the May 1991 issue of Model Railroader has a fine article on postwar Express Box Car conversion. The New York Central had some of these conversions. © 2003 George J. Irwin. All rights reserved. Reposting prohibited.

And so might a number of other people. The positive feedback I have heard, read or otherwise received from my friends around the country seem to me to almost guarantee an immediate sellout of these cars and unsatisfied demand for more, not unlike the skeleton log car in fact. Many are buying more than one complete set in order to have a suitable length train. To a person, that I've heard from anyway, there is 100% approval of the price/value equation on these new body styles. Besides being the first troop cars available in N Scale, this release is MTL's first with interiors, simulated window glazing, and installed diaphragms. And even I am surprised at how reasonable the MSRP is. I guess there is more than I thought to the fraction of the sticker price that is consumed by masking and painting. Since the Pullman scheme is pretty basic, that probably kept the prices low. (Versus the UP "Campbell Soup" box car above, for instance.) © 2003 George J. Irwin. All rights reserved. Reposting prohibited.

To see the real thing, you can head to a restored troop sleeper at the Mad River and NKP Museum in Bellevue, Ohio (near Sandusky). And there's a kitchen car at the Issaquah Depot Museum in Washington State. I'm also told that others exist at Fort Eustis, Virginia. © 2003 George J. Irwin. All rights reserved. Reposting prohibited.