The N Scale Collector announces the first Pre-2005 National Convention 5 Pack which spotlights historic paint schemes of the Great Northern of the late 40?s to mid 70?s. Great Northern was anything but dull in their use of color as they knew how to make shippers aware of their existence by using bright colors with special type fonts and the famous Billy Goat logo. Even today, BNSF replicates some of these same paint themes on their engines.

Car #1 This striking post WWII Great Northern 40-foot boxcar was constructed of a steel frame with plywood sheathing. Full corrugated steel doors were applied only after WWII had ended. Prior to that, the doors were made of plywood with a steel frame. Car number 10094 came out of the St. Cloud car shops with its bright Omaha Orange sides, black ends and roof with Pullman green outline around the perimeter.

Car #2 This car has been recently repainted big sky blue and lettered with the modern gothic style. Almost all cars in series were painted big sky blue and had black underside and trucks.

Car #3 One of the advantages to using a 40' box car to haul grain is the light weight of the cars when loaded with 50 tons of grain. Numerous spurs and branch lines had light rail that heavier cars would derail on due to weight. A majority of cars were equipped with Camel doors, although other doors were used as replacements.

Car #4 14% of all revenue came from hauling wheat in the 1960?s, the highest revenue producing commodity transported by 40? Great Northern boxcars. Covered hoppers eventually replaced the boxcars in the mid 1970?s. This car is painted glacier green and lettered with modern gothic lettering which would indicate its from the transition period from glacier green to big sky blue.

Car #5 Box car 2540 was one of 25 built in 1948 by Great Northern. Identical to the 40? steel 6? wide door cars built in the late 40?s, they featured 12 steel side panels, a riveted diagonal panel roof and Timken roller bearing trucks. The 100,000 pound load capacity were painted a Pullman green and Omaha orange with Pullman green ?Great Northern? lettering, white reporting marks and a 2-colored herald.