David,

There are a couple things to understand about the Accurail or even the Tichy
USRA box car models.

First, I thought you mentioned a late 1950s era for your focus. A ruling set for
January 1, 1953 banned freight cars with the older K brake systems from
interchange. This affected lots of freight cars built before 1930 that had not
been upgraded with the AB brake system. Many railroads scrapped the older
equipment or moved it to maintenance service.

Second, in terms of sheer numbers, the prototypes of the USRA single sheathed
cars and those that followed a similar design (whether the Canadian cars the
Accurail model reflects or other 1920s cars) were a small percentage of the
North American box car fleet, even when new. There were 25,000 USRA single
sheathed box cars built and assigned by the USRA. Even if that figure is doubled
with all the similar cars that came afterwards, I estimate the overall quantity
is not even 10% of the 1920s North American box car fleet. If we look at your
later era and take equipment retirement and rebuilding into different looking
cars as factors, then that percentage is probably less that 3%.

Third, railroads had been updating their freight car fleet with steel sheathed
box cars since the late 1930s. Marty mentioned the CN numbers in another post.
After WW2, the single and double-sheathed box car fleets began dwindling as
newer steel sheathed cars came into service. The newer cars had greater cubic
capacity and required less maintenance. If you review yard images from the
mid-1950s, wood sheathed box cars are less numerous than in a similar image
taken a decade previous.

I like the Accurail models. I model 1926 and have a few prototypes that can be
done with some work on the Accurail shell. I don't plan to use more than five
but these will not look alike as one will have a different roof and underframe,
and at least one will have an extra half door added for automobile hauling
service. Currently here are several in use on my Wheeling Freight Terminal as
they are great for the monthly op sessions and to hold a spot for era-specific
freight cars that come off the bench and through the paint shop.

Eric Hansmann
El Paso, TX
http://designbuildop.hansmanns.org/