Another N Scale Update

I'm still on serious rewiring of my main HO layout, and working on the N T-Trak modules has been a good break. So I'm back looking for post-2005 freight cars. Here are two I've found from Atlas:

UP 1520534 is a Thrall 2743 gondola. I haven't seen any of these in California, but I've found photos on the web, so this is an actual thing. After I posted on my 1980s Soo Line gon last week, I decided I needed to paint the interiors of all my N gons Tru Color Rust as a start to weathering the interiors. I note, though, that the couplers on this car are truck mounted and flimsy (one broke when I removed the car from the box), and the trucks are still attached with plastic push pins. I will need to body mount Micro Trains couplers, add metal wheels, and mount the trucks with screws.

BNSF 781403 is an Atlas ex BLMA car. Big difference, this has body mount Micro Trains couplers, metal wheels, and trucks mounted with screws. These cars are extremely common in California, as they are used to ship Gallo wine from Modesto.

These cars are heavily tagged, and I'll need to address this.

I went back looking at some of the cars I did in the 1980s. The Philadelphia Bethlehem and New England was the common carrier line that served Bethlehem Steel's Bethlehem, PA mill. The Roundhouse gon matches photos on the web. In the 1980s I added COTS stencils, removed the truck mounted Rapido couplers, added body mount Micro Trains couplers, and mounted the trucks with screws rather than push pins.

This is one of the N gons that I painted the interior with Rust as preparation for more weathering.

Here are two Roundhouse boxcars I reworked in the 1980s. If the prototypes exist now, they aren't painted this way. I still like these, though.

Finally, here's the scenery work around the Virginia Avenue portal on my T-Trak modules: