Stock Traffic

When I started this layout, I kept meaning to include stock traffic, but I never really got around to it. However, I discovered some stock projects that were lying around almost finished, so I decided to get going with them.

The biggest is probably the oldest car I still have in its original form, a Tyco Rio Grande stock car from about 1961. My memory is that my dad took me to the hobby shop to get it as a reward for good grades, which up to then had been in short supply. Over the first several years I had it, I gradually worked on the paint and lettering. The original flying Rio Grande on the Tyco car was orange, so I painted that out and replaced it with a decal at some point in the 1960s.

I wasn't satisfied with the number that was on the car for whatever reason, so I painted it out and replaced it with a decal. I do remember how frustrating it was, in the 1960s, to find out what numbers Rio Grande stock cars actually had. Equipment Registers weren't part of the vocabulary at the time, I couldn't locate photos, so I just gave it any old number. I'm on the fence as to whether to correct this.

I did remove the horn-hook couplers from the trucks, but typical of teenage modeling in the 1960s, I just glued some Kadees to the floor, which of course wasn't satisfactory. Not long ago I pulled this out and attached a new set of Kadees with screws.

To do the job properly, I'll still need to replace the trucks completely.

I pulled out a Walthers 1990s GN stock car kit and an Accurail run from about the same period:

Then I turned to the question of how to load and unload stock cars. Stock pens actually take a lot of space, as do stockyards connected with slaugherhouses. I don't have room for any of that. I did find a laser stock loading ramp kit on eBay that was pretty reasonable, and I added it to Malabar:

I'll need to weather it more. I'll probably add one of these to the spur at Tennessee Pass as well: