Tangent Scale Models - HO Scale - Greenville Steel Car Company 86ft High Cube Double Plug Door Box Car - Norfolk & Western (NW) #861323 - “Delivery 1978” - Black/Gray/White With White Lettering (SKU 20009-25042-03)
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:
Norfolk & Western (NW) “Delivery 1978” replicates another major player in the world of Greenville 86’ Boxcars. The NW rostered several Greenville series, but the 1978 order was the biggest. In fact, this 1978 B-138 class of 317 cars was the biggest Greenville order of any railroad. The bold NW graphics are almost understated on a boxcar of this size, but this paint scheme is one example that literally defines modern auto parts trains. The NW cars feature the correct late-Greenville body with 5 grab irons on each side along with body mounted brake gear. Those gorgeous 100-Ton “Low Profile” Barber S-2-C trucks show off the accurate rotating Timken bearing caps. SKUs -01 through -06 have January 1978 data and SLUs -07 through -12 have February 1978 data.
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