Can you identify this HO boxcar?


E

E. McKeesport & Allegheny

Michael "Mikey" Moore
Please identfy this car's maker. Is it old? How much is it worth? It is made of wood with tin pieces overlaid. The walkway and ends of the car are made of brass. The couplers are made of cast potmetal and don't open. Central Georgia road #CG4567. It is put together with tiny brads or staples.

Mystery.jpg
 
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Not sure on the exact type, but this looks (to my inexperienced eye:D) to be a kit car from the early days of HO railroading. RMC recently did a 2 or 3 part series in the "Collector's Consist" section of their magazine about cars that looked like this one. You might try your library for some recent back issues.
 
When I started out in Model RR'ing in 1961 that was about all you could get for rolling stock. Back then I paid about $2.50 for 1 & it took me a long frustrating time to put 1 together. That 1 looks like someone added a new wood floor. They originally had a metal floor that was real thin over a pc. of thin wood like Luan wall paneling. I threw away about 10 of those about 20 years ago that were incomplete & needed a lot of TLC to make them roll level on my rails. To a collector in the original box would probably bring about $25.00 w/out the new floor.
 
Larry:

Are you sure you mean 1961? Perhaps 1951?

I switched from 027 to HO scale around that time and had plenty of Athearn plastic box cars and other rolling stock. I never saw a kit like the one in question in my years. See attached old shot of my layout from around 1963/64 or so. No kit boxcars on it, all plastic. It had been expanded from a 4' by 8' to a 6' by 8', so was in operation for some time before this.
 
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Bob, I wasn't into MRR'ing in 1951. The hobby shop that I was buying from in north Miami only had kit rolling stock. I think that was all he handled. I know he had a lot of wood structures that I hated to build. I'm sure that it was 1951 when the wood & metal started. I just remember when I started out there were very few people my age of 22 doing train layouts in Miami. Also, there was a lot of cardstock buildings that you could get. I still have 1, but, not from the 60's. You know how our memory gets sometimes(CRS), maybe I did start out in 1951. OH Well~~~~~~~
 
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hamltnblue said:
It has plastic wheel sets
Click to expand...

The wheels are made of black painted brass pressed onto steel axles. The trucks are made of cast potmetal, and have two tiny spings on each side that "give" to simulate real sprung trucks.

My $1400 Minolta 7Hi camera takes macro pictures, but I was unable to get enough detail to show what I am takling about.
 
Larry said:
That 1 looks like someone added a new wood floor. They originally had a metal floor that was real thin over a pc. of thin wood like Luan wall paneling.
Click to expand...

The floor is wood without any metal. The underframe and brake gear is fastened with little studs that poke up through the floor. The floor is made of a solid piece of 1/8" thich wood, not luan.
 
Larry said:
When I started out in Model RR'ing in 1961 that was about all you could get for rolling stock. Back then I paid about $2.50 for 1 & it took me a long frustrating time to put 1 together. That 1 looks like someone added a new wood floor. They originally had a metal floor that was real thin over a pc. of thin wood like Luan wall paneling. I threw away about 10 of those about 20 years ago that were incomplete & needed a lot of TLC to make them roll level on my rails. To a collector in the original box would probably bring about $25.00 w/out the new floor.
Click to expand...

This car looks like it would be a real PITA to assemble. Even 40 years ago I wouldn't have had the patience to undertake a project like that.

I got this car for free from a hobby shop in Cheswick, PA from the 80 YO owner who was closing his shop after many years. His specialty was brass.
 
E. McKeesport & Allegheny said:
Please identfy this car's maker. Is it old? How much is it worth? It is made of wood with tin pieces overlaid. The walkway and ends of the car are made of brass. The couplers are made of cast potmetal and don't open. Central Georgia road #CG4567. It is put together with tiny brads or staples.
Click to expand...

That looks like an original Athearn metal kit. This is what Irv got his start with. It dates from 1947-1953? The metal floor was available on the later versions of this model. Its value would only be to a collector. $10 if you're lucky.

These kits are still available. They were made by Menzies for years. I believe they were bought out several years ago and the kits now are offered as, "Original Athearn Metal Kits", by another company, whose name I can't remember, (foot maybe it still is Menzies:D). I saw one recently at a out of state LHS.
 
Yep, it's an old Athearn kit. The whole car was originally a block of wood that you applied the printed metal sides to with Goo and then glued on the roof and ends. They were generally unpainted so you had to finish that part yourself. The underframe was also glued to the bottom of the car, along with the brake line parts. They came without trucks or couplers so they could have whatever kind of trucks and couplers the original modeler bought. Athearn had sprung trucks you could buy for 50 cents a pair. The dummy couplers are a little unusual since most of them were the hook and loop variety at that time. Athearn later revised the cars so you built up the sides, ends and roof around the wood floor. You could then have opening side doors. If done right, they made up into a decent looking model but you had to replace the crude wire staples with wire grabs and properly formed strirrup steps.

After assembly, replacing the crude detail parts with better ones, and painting, it wasn't unusual to put 20 hours of work into a simple boxcar. I'm convinced that one of the reasons why clubs were so much more popular in the early 50's was that no one modeler was able to assemble many of these cars without going psychotic so long trains almost required a few other guys to contribute cars. :)
 
I don't think so, Jack. Ambroid almost never released a common boxcar kit and, when they did, it was always a wood model. The wood underside with the brake parts stuck in the wood floor and those wavy metal sides are a dead giveaway to original Athearn kits.
 
Athearn metal line, definitely. Could be original, or one of the re-runs from the mid-late 1970s sold under the name George F. Menzies Co. The Menzies kits were pretty much identical to the originals, seemed to have been stamped from the same tooling and printed using the same artwork. They came in plastic bags rather than boxes. They are pretty cool especially if you like to weather using real rust :)

Andy
 
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