>>Canadian grain box cars<<


GEXR

GEXR

New Member
Hello all,

I have been looking for manufacturers of the grain boxes used by CP and CN to haul grain before they were replaced by covered hoppers. As far as I know not many companies build models of these cars. Athearn offers this: http://www.athearn.com/ProdInfo/ATH/450/ATH71967-450.jpg
This model looks decent and is priced well, however, I found a collection of cars from Trains Canada that are more the style I am after:

http://www.trainscanada.ca/page2.html

Please click the link and scroll down to the picture of the box cars they offer. In the background you'll notice a string of grain boxes. These look very good but are priced at over $20/car! I am a starving student so...

My question: Is there a manufacturer out there that produces cars like these for less cost? I am not opposed to buying used. I do not require extreme detail in the car itself but similar styles and paint schemes would be great.

Any info you may have regarding grain boxes and their use would be greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance!

-James
 
A cheap way to go would be decals on bargain bin boxcars...
We're talkin' HO scale here, right?
 
Thanks for the reply!

Sorry, I forgot to mention HO was the scale. I considered using decals but the problem is I don't know where to find decals that imitate what was shown on the cars. Decals may be even more difficult to find than the cars. Trains Canada doesn't sell their decals, probably because they want people to buy the whole car instead of have them make their own.

Also, I am not so sure that standard box cars are the same as grain box cars. Some prototypes look a little different from the standard 40 footer.

Anymore ideas, everyone?
 
CDS dry transfers...there is a set for Canadian National grain box cars with the wheat sheaf logo for the side. Just buy a bunch of Athearn (or other) 40' boxcars that are prepainted in boxcar red and apply the dry transfers.

You may be able to get the dry transfers at www.tmrdistributing.com

timothy dineen
 
GEXR, I think you're starting off on the wrong foot...your Athearn 40' single door...something like this: http://www.athearn.com/Products/Default.aspx?ProdID=ATH70453 or this: http://www.athearn.com/Products/Default.aspx?ProdID=ATH70426 ... the car you were looking at was a half-hearted effort by numerous rr's to haul grain one direction, and backhaul another commodity in the return trip....never did pan out for the necessity of repeated cleaning after grain service for the 2nd commodity on the return trip!!! The cars I have shown definitely did decades of grain service, from the 50's all the way into the 70's...the ONLY stickler, if you need to be "PC", the true early grain boxcars all had 6' doors. This was necessary to accommodate the first generation of wood grain doors, (which were a double layer of 1 inch lumber in 8' lengths) and then the 2nd generation of grain door, which was the Signode cardboard with steel strapping, again in 8' lengths. With the prices of these cars off the shelf, your best bet is start hitting up all the model train shows and keep an eye out on 2nd hand offers... Athean "blue box" model cars will be around for decades to come.
 
The best place to find the Athearn cars is either at a hobby shop which may or may not sell below MSRP, and at train shows. I bought one (Ontario Northland) at a hobby shop for $14. I bought it for the interesting paint scheme :D
 
Here's a few pics of car variations. The third is my favorite, they were made specifically for the Churchhill line to keep the weight down.
When I was into N scale I had quite a few cars by Microtrains and some I decaled myself.
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_kawpWTOGqPk/SYY5hkf7eMI/AAAAAAAAAcw/iS3ME9SdLHE/s1600-h/blogcng6.jpg
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_kawpWTOGqPk/SYY4XZstVUI/AAAAAAAAAcg/dhCz3qQQwK4/s1600-h/blogcng5.jpg
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_kawpWTOGqPk/SYY3o6wkcGI/AAAAAAAAAcQ/_V24bQZaY8U/s1600-h/blogcng3.jpg
 
Thanks guys, I think I have decided how to approach this!

It appears that the Athearn grain box cars have specialized doors. It almost looks like there are small hatches at the top of the door, perhaps for ease of loading. This would eliminate the need to cooper the car with grain doors. Am I correct or am I seeing things? haha

Having said that, it looks like the majority of the cars weren't specialized. I think what I will do is pick up the standard boxcars and use them for grain. I have noticed that some of the grain box cars are standard 40's with a government of canada wheat sheaf painted on it. I really like this look and I was able to find decals for the sheaves at tmrdistributing.com.

My final questions are, does anyone know around what year the sheaves started appearing on the cars? When were the walkways removed from the roofs?

Thanks!
 
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Accurail

Look at the different varieties of boxes that Accurail has available.

They may not be 100% right for your railroad but there's probably something to use as a stand-in. The detail on the cars is excellent and the prices are the best going outside of a swap meet.

Direct orders are fine if you don't have a local dealer.
 
1) The Athearn "Grain door" boxcar is a double-plug door car that does not match anything that CP or CN ever had. I believe it's closest to a Union Pacific car. Closest Canadian car would be a small series of CP cars with a single plug door that had similar grain doors.

2) The cars that were refurbished were all 6' door cars. That makes the TrainsCanada cars with their 8' doors wrong.

3) Canadian Pacific's green painted boxcars were for newsprint/paper service only. Newsprint cars all had 8' doors.

4) New cars were built without runing boards (roofwalks) starting around 1965-66. Roofwalks were supposed to be removed from all cars by the late 1970s, but some older cars made it to the early 1980s even though they were supposed to have already been removed.

5) A lot of CP's refurbished grain cars were renumbered into the 120000-123000 range and these started showing up around 1970.

6) You can get some CP cars in the script scheme with the wheat sheaf applied from Intermountain:
http://www.intermountain-railway.com/ho/html/46812.htm
The yellow dot on a black square is a wheel inspection marking that dates from 1978, so if your timeframe is prior to that, it should be removed. If your timeframe is after 1978, it should be added to any car that was built in 1978 or earlier. Decals are available from MicroScale and Highball.

(As an aside, do NOT get the Intermountain car in the "CP Newsprint" scheme, as only 8' door cars were so marked. I had one of these in my supply, so I removed the newsprint shield, replaced it with a wheat sheaf from a CDS set and renumber the car.)

7) Other regular 40' boxcars without the special grain markings would also be mixed in and loaded with grain. The ones with the special markings were refurbished with government money so they weren't allowed to be used in general service.
 
Perfect, thanks for the detailed info Chris. That is extremely helpful in deciding which cars to pick up. Finding appropriate cars will be easier than I predicted.

Thanks for all the advice, everyone.
 
When I was a child of about 10 (51 years ago) my father was repairing the main scale in the grain elevator that we were also customers of and he took me along. While he worked I got to explore and wander around. They were loading boxcars with shelled corn and I got to "help" by holding the spout directing grain into the cars.

What I remember is that the cars were standard Rock Island 40' boxcars and grain doors were braced cardboard. The boxcar door was all the way open so that the grain spout could be swung so that the ends of the car could be filled as well as the middle. The elevator employees used a car puller to move the cars into position.
 
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