Rolling stock: Box cars GN 46006 and OSL 189777

I’ve recently acquired a few more pieces of rolling stock for my collection including a couple of used box cars made by Aristocraft. These are essentially identical cars except for the paint as they’re from the same mold, but interestingly one is labeled as a 50’ box car and the other is labeled as 40’.

I want to own at least one car from each of the four railroads that merged to form Burlington Northern in 1970, and I thought GN 46006 would be a nice addition even if it isn’t historically accurate. The colorful Great Northern paint scheme you see here was used on passenger train equipment starting in 1947 but not on freight equipment, although I suppose a box car might have had this paint scheme if it was intended for use in a passenger train. Another thing to note is the version of the Great Northern logo on this car is more like what you would have seen in the 1920’s or 1930’s, not mid-century. So it seems unlikely that a box car painted like this existed, but it is very pretty nonetheless.

Great Northern box car GN 46006

As I also have a Union Pacific locomotive I want to acquire a few UP cars as well. I liked this particular UP box car as it uses OSL, the reporting mark for Oregon Short Line, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Union Pacific that was anything but short. The OSL was created by UP to connect the UP main line at Granger, Wyo. to the Oregon Railway & Navigation Co. main line at Huntington, Ore. (You may recall from previous posts that the OR&N was the railroad that built through Elberton). The OSL grew through extensions, mergers and name changes to over 2,400 miles by 1936. It was not fully incorporated into the UP until 1987 so the OSL reporting mark was seen on cars through much of the 20th century.

Union Pacific / Oregon Short Line box car OSL 189777

The UP car is missing a ladder but otherwise these two car bodies are in perfect shape. I can tell from the wear on the trucks that the GN car did have some mileage, and when changing out the wheels I broke one of the trucks as the plastic had become so brittle. So I ended up completely replacing the trucks on the GN car as well as replacing couplers, while the UP car only needed new couplers. 

Outdoor construction on the PE&A has essentially wrapped up for the season. I finished the second of the two drop-girder spans and I’ve continued to do some landscaping work so the railroad is all set for the rainy season. The next big construction projects are concrete piers for the bridges, the wooden trestle work along the east loop, and a spur into the garage where the train yard will be located. These outdoor projects will likely wait until spring for construction. Over the winter I’ll be doing inside projects such as designing the freight yard, building trestle bents, converting one or more of my locomotives to radio control and battery power, and possibly building a couple more structures such as a barn and a grain elevator. All of this activity, of course, will be covered in this blog.

Bridge complete with both drop girder approaches. Total bridge length is just under eight feet (240 feet in 1:29 scale).