PCCM 53 Auto Parts Time Warp

I have auto parts traffic on my layout, but it's mostly transition-era, and it moves on ordinary manifests. There's no major talky-talky reason for this, but on one hand, I don't have an auto plant as an industry on my layout -- these are big things, and my preference has been for a little more scenery than industry. As well, modern 86-foot and 60-foot auto parts cars take up more siding space than transition-era 40- and 50-foot cars, which limits switching opportunities.

But I've also had a chance to include vintage models in my operations. In fact, I just pulled this one out of the purgatory box:

This is an Athearn round-roof box from what must be the early 1950s. The DT&I and PRR cars on my layout appeared in the 1953 catalog. A page from the 1948 catalog says the round roof cars were "just out". In the late 1970s, I met a guy who was one of Athearn's first employees. Irvin Athearn would send him out to Los Angeles rail yards to take pictures of equipment that seemed interesting -- he passed some of the prints on to me. While the DT&I car is not one that he passed a print of on to me, it seems like the sort of thing Howard would have photographed, taken back to Irvin Athearn, and Athearn would have done a model.

Below is another Athearn metal car that I repainted and lettered with Champ decals. This should probably have a white stripe on the right hand door for the Evans racks.

Here's another Athearn metal car that I found at a swap meet with original paint, clearly with original prototype routing stencil for auto parts. The stencil reads, "Return when empty to PRR Cincinnati, Ohio".

The Accurail double-door 40-foot boxcar is a "close enough" version of various roads' 40-foot auto box and auto parts cars. An example is the PRR X37. I have several of these in various PRR paint schemes. This one has an auto parts pool number over the road name on the right hand side.

Accurail did a series of 50-foot double-door boxcars in collaboration with Walthers some years ago. These cars were in early 1960s schemes where they would have been out of assembled auto service, and thus have had their Evans racks removed, but would have remained in parts service carrying items like engine blocks that were too heavy for 60-foot or 86-foot cars coming into service at that time. Here are several on my layout:

Below is a Proto 2000 Union Pacific car with end doors:

Here's a Proto 2000 New York Central car. Most models of cars like this from the 1940s and 50s should have white stripes on the right hand door to indicate Evans auto racks. I did this on the NYC car, but I still need to do it on the UP car above.

Here's a Roundhouse Des Moines and Central Iowa car stenciled for tire loading.

These cars operate in general freight service on my layout.

Other entries in this series can be found at:

• New York Central Train Layout
• Kings Port Division
• Atlantic Pacific Railroad
• Ralston Creek Railroad