Tangent Scale Models - HO Scale - Greenville Steel Car Company 86ft High Cube Double Plug Door Box Car - Conrail (CR) #297848 - “Delivery 4-1978” - Red/White/Gray With White Lettering (SKU 20009-25041-10)
Available On: February 1, 2023
During the 1960s, the most radical freight car designs employed the extreme height clearances offered by Plate F car designs. In 1964, no car type articulated this extreme more than the 86-foot, purpose-built “Auto Parts” boxcars. These large boxcars became fixtures on the rails all over North American mainlines, riding hot trains to deliver components vital to the productivity of auto plants. While several car builders offered 86’ auto parts boxcars, the most prolific builder of the double plug door design was Greenville Steel Car Company of Greenville PA. More than 4,400 of these cars were acquired by most major railroads, and they were assigned to pools where multiple railroad’s cars served a specific shipper or shippers. Original utilization of these cars was for Ford, Pontiac, and Chrysler, as well as deliveries from 3rd party parts suppliers to the auto plants. Greenville’s 1964-1978 production was the longest run for this car type, with many still in service today.
Tangent Scale Models offers high-end HO models of the Greenville 86’ High Cube Double Plug Door Box Car in HO scale! This is not just a single box car model, but instead a system of 86’ High Cube Double Plug Door Box Car models.
The Tangent Greenville 86’ High Cube Double Plug Door Box Car system is a state of the art, dimensionally-accurate scale replica that was tooled to Greenville Steel Car plans and verified with field measurements. The model comes with highly accurate “true-to-life” colors and “hyper-accurate” lettering including exact stenciling, fonts, and lettering placement. The Greenville 86’ system of models offers a multitude of detail variations and phases to replicate the many different Greenville Steel Car offerings. A quick synopsis of the era and railroad-specific detail variations include:
Conrail (CR) “Delivery 1978” shows off the timeless CR boxcar freight scheme, and the car class that served the longest! While Conrail did absorb numerous predecessor series of 86’ Auto Parts Boxcars from Greenville, Thrall, Pullman and SRS, there was only ONE group of cars ordered and delivered new to Conrail. This 1978 Greenville order is significant, numbering 312 cars. The Tangent replica duplicates all of the delivery lettering exactly as applied by Greenville, from the big Conrail logo down to the 2” data and stencil marks. No generic CR data or fonts here – this is hand-drawn from exact photos. The CR cars feature accurate body-mounted brake gear with all those visible rods and assemblies hanging below the car side just like they should. Did you notice the “third arm” mechanisms at the top of each door? We did, too – they are accurate and appropriate for this car, as-built. SKUs -01 through -03 feature April 1978 data, and SKUs -04 through -12 feature May 1978 data. This is a big series of cars and they are ready to haul auto parts on your layout.
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