Freight Car Delivery - 12-4-2015

ABOX 51052 and More Gunderson 2420 Gondolas Arrive

To compliment the ten ExactRail Gunderson 2420 Cuft gondolas received on 11-16-2015, 14 more were ordered and received today--12-4-2015.

This order was placed at the end of November, taking advantage of the $12.95 price.  This brings the fleet up to an even two-dozen--a respectable start to a unit rock train.

In addition, I did spring for a model of an FMC 5277 Combination Door boxcar decorated as ABOX 51052.  This car is one from the latest ExactRail release.  I never did get one of these Combo Door boxcars from the first release and regretted it.  They went fast and did not pop up on eBay very often. So now I have one!

This model of ABOX 51052 is just a beautiful car all around!  I am very glad to have it in the fleet.

Back to the rock cars, as discussed in the earlier blog with the first batch delivered, I intended to split the fleet up 50/50 between NT&O and T&GN cars.  I purchased five-each of the ExactRail MP and CNW cars with similar plate design for this split.  As it turned out the small NT&O logos I have on-hand are just a smidge too long to fit on the plate placed over one of the corrugated panels for logo placement.

The solution: I decided that all of the MP and CNW versions would be used to model T&GN cars and I decided to introduce the ExactRail Cotton Belt (SSW) version to the fleet for the NT&O cars.  These cars have a larger smooth plate placed over the center two corrugated panels.  This arrangement will easily accommodate the NT&O logo.

ExactRail offerd the SSW cars in three numbers, but the first number SSW 72557 was sold out.  I decided that I wanted to start my first Meridian Speedway rock train consist with a dozen NT&O cars and a dozen T&GN cars.  So I split the NT&O cars among the remaining SSW offerings, ordering six copies of SSW 72591 and six copies of SSW 72634.  I would have preferred the panel placement on the ExactRail CSX version, however all of those were sold out.

To bring my T&GN fleet up to a dozen I ordered one more CNW 89152 and one more MP 640203. 

Below are a couple of close-up images of the SSW cars:

And for comparison, here is an earlier image of the CNW/MP cars:

Now aired up, the paint booth in the man cave is up to the challenge of painting this fleet of gondolas!

​Chris