Hi Bill; There was a thread on this subject (actually on ALL the AM cars) back in 1999. It became rather contentious (really? On the S List?).
The overall problem with the AM boxcar is that it has the height of a 10ft 0in inside height car, but the late pattern Improved Dreadnaught Ends and diagonal panel roof which were hardly ever fitted to cars of that height. There may have been an odd prototype or two, but mostly the car would have been much better if made a bit taller, like the taller PRS forty foot boxcars. The details are closest to a post -1954 design. It is what it is, and is worth remembering that before that car, our choices were pretty well limited to AF "X29" cars, older stamped metal kits by Permabilt or Nimco, the awful Loco Workshop flat kits, or !@#$ Trainstuff resin models. The PRS (now SSA) cars are better for cars built through and somewhat after WWII, but there isn't much else you can do for post war 40 ft boxcars at this time, except maybe shorten a PRS 50 ft car to 40 ft. Pieter E. Roos --- On Sat, 6/9/12, Bill Lane <[email protected]> wrote: Years ago some wise S Scaler looked at the original group of American Models cars to figure out “what they were” especially the boxcar. It was decided they were largely a fictional group of passable details that never existed on 1 car. But back then there was nothing else besides laborious old school kits – so A M sold a ton of cars. They were pretty cheap – about $20.00. We all have changed wanting better accuracy now and the price has gone up accordingly. I would guess that A M original majority market for freight car sales was to scale buyers. I wonder what it is today as they would be a rather light car for use in a AF/hi rail train setting. Thank You, Bill Lane Modeling the Mighty Pennsy & PRSL in 1957 in S Scale since 1988 See my finished models at: http://www.lanestrains.com Look at what has been made in PRR in S Scale! Custom Train Parts Design http://www.lanestrains.com/SolidWorks_Modeling.htm PRR Builders Photos Bought, Sold & Traded (Trading is MUCH preferred) http://www.lanestrains.com/PRRphotos.xls ***Join the PRR T&HS*** The other members are not ALL like me! http://www.prrths.com http://www.lanestrains.com/PRRTHS_Application.pdf Join the Pennsylvania Reading Seashore Lines Historical Society It's FREE to join! http://www.prslhs.com Preserving The Memory Of The PRSL
