Burlington Northern boxcars


Traintown

New Member
I have ordered a BN P2K, and am looking for some rolling stock to go with it. Man I cannot find very much at all. Found some in the $30.00 each price range, but donnot want to give that for a boxcar, I didn't know BN was so hard to find, I find a lot of BNSF, but I dont think that would be right to pull behind a BN GP38-2. Does anyone know where BN rolling stock can be found? Walthers had about the best selection but it wasn't great, any suggestions? Mike
 
I picked some decent Athearn RTR BN boxcars at MB Klein for ~ $12/ea about a year ago. I didn't see any BN on their website when I looked today, though; guess this is a "between runs" period?

I faced a similar situation 3 months ago when I wanted a solid-blue GTW auto rack by Walthers. The one I bid on got sniped away from me at the last minute. So I just bought some microscale decals and painted/lettered my own.

If you really want some BN cars that badly, you could always go that route...good luck!
 
At least BN cars are a snap to paint! Just dip 'em in Scalecoat green. :)

Seriously though, you could always pick up some covered hoppers to go behind that GP38-2. Intermountain and P2K make BN kits and RTR models, and Accurail, Athearn, MDC-Roundhouse and Walthers have offered them in the past.

But if boxcars are your thing, just look for some old MDC-Roundhouse boxcars. They made several different types painted for BN. Although they aren't in production anymore (well, not as MDC-Roundhouse kits anymore - they're Athearn RTR now), they're easy to find at larger hobby shops and on ebay.
 
I'd have a browse on Ebay, there's normally BN stuff on there but like Josh says don't limit yourself to BN, look at any old BN video and you'll see all kinds of different roadnames in a train
 
I am not trying to limit myself to only BN but I will have a new BN here in a few days and I do not have anything in rolling stock or anything elece that is BN. I do have several other boxcars and such but would like to have some BN stock to go with what I nave got. Mike
 
Mike, I mentioned this in a response on the MRR forum, but I will expand on it a little.

There are a few things that will determine your choice of fright cars for a consist.

1. Date. Do you have a cut off date, say 1975? Anything newer than that would be not yet made so off bounds for purchase.

2. Industries. Does your model serve any specific industries that might have an influence over the rolling stock? For example private label freight cars for a specific industry.

3. History. What are the predecessor railroads that would still have freight cars painted and lettered that are part of the BN heritage. The closer you are to the formation of BN (1970?) the more of these there would be. CB&Q, Northern Pacific, Great Northern etc. Some of these would likely be old and well weathered in your era.

4. Interchange. Are there any notable roads that interchange with the BN in the area you are modelling. Freight cars from these roads and virtually any other could and would show up in a consist.

The bottom line is that it is very unlikely that you would see a consist made up of entirely BN cars. There would likely be a mixture, some nice new BN green and plently of old weathered GN, Q etc.

Setting yourself a nominal date range for the cars can help in avoiding purchases that in the end don't fit. You don't have to be a complete slave to this, but it can help in assembling a more realistic roster.
 
There was a post/article recently somewhere that talks about the mix of cars on any road. Can't recall where I saw it, but it was relatively comprehensive as to how many cars from the home road would normally be seen.

I think it said that the majority of the cars would normally be roads other than the home road.

Kennedy
 
I think the thread you are talking about is one that I started,The best I could figure was 50% home rail, 25% other rails and 25% privet owned. Thanks. Mike
 



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