PWRS Exclusive Micro-Trains
Canadian National (CNA) 4-pack (Update)
Images of Models:
50 ft Rib Side Box Car, Plug & Sliding Door, w/o Roofwalk
Pacific Western Rail Systems is pleased to announce our PWRS Exclusive Micro-Trains N Scale Canadian National (CNA) 4-Pack.
These cars are painted CN brown, with white lettering, and will feature moderate weathering. Obviously, they are part of the 1950s-1960s "nice and filthy," - maybe downright "dirty" - box car series, real cars still in service today but originating decades ago.
The CNA road mark denotes CN equipment built in the USA. Two cars will feature yellow plug doors, and two will have green sliding doors. Why the variance in the doors? These cars were surplus box cars from Railbox and they were sometimes short a door, so they used a green door or a yellow plug door, something on hand and still usable.
As with all PWRS Exclusive Micro-Trains products, these are limited run products that will never be produced again.
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The idea behind the Combination boxcar (plug and sliding door) is to make a versatile car that can act as either a double door boxcar or a plug door boxcar. If you were loading 8 ft studs in the car, you would load the car just like any other double door boxcar. But if you are loading paper, you would seal the far doors with duct tape, then load the car. The plug door closes first, then the sliding door.
The idea is… you can use it as a box car with sliding door only, and still have flush walls where the plug doors are, to increase your usable cu ft in the car. If you have larger lading, you can open the plug doors also, for extra door width.
Plug doors in general, were first started for bunkerless reefers, mechanical reefers and insulated box cars. It's hard to do any insulation with a sliding door. The main reason all the large box cars today have mostly plug doors, is that large sliding doors just get too hard to move. Yard workers will remember trying to open 8 ft sliding doors, and unless the cars were fairly new, open and closing sliding doors was a real PITA. After a car was several years old, you'd see where the door was getting all banged up from people using forklift blades to open and close the doors.
Plug doors run on wide runners and rollers, and are easier to move. And since the doors are out, away from the car side, there is not problem when a car side is bulged out.
Reservations Due By: September 30, 2018
Expected February 2018