Schuyler Larrabee wrote:
"Asking before what was accurate saved me a lot of money . . . .what
about this time?"
<http://www.intermountain-railway.com/flyer51w.jpg>

Tim O'Connor replied:
"Schuyler, 4 of the 8 cars have KC brakes which indicates
they may be not correct for your era of the 1950's. For example
the SP B-50-12's were rebuilt into all-steel cars by 1950.
The latest photos I have of any are from 1949."

We'll cover the PRR Class X26 boxcars in a moment, and Tim already
covered the SP and GA cars. A few notes on the others:

CP: 2,477 were still in service in 1960. This is actually a
USRA "clone" built in 1921 with 7/8 Murphy ends. Tichy offered the
USRA SS kit with these ends as a CP version; however, I'd verify if
the RTR model actually has these ends if you intend to buy it.

MILW: The number of MILW USRA SS boxcars in service started to drop
off in large numbers after WWII, but they would run into the mid-
1950s. Many kept KC brakes througout their entire service lives.

CNW: Though the CNW cars ran as late as 1961, this model has the as-
delivered 1918 paint scheme.

NYC: The NYC (NYC and ex-Michigan Central) cars were gone by 1953.
These particular cars were retired, NOT rebuilt into steel boxcars -
those were rebuilt from the PMcK&Y's allotment of USRA SS boxcars,
Lot 384-B.


Greg Martin replied:
"You can trust the PRR units are correct unless they changed
something since Ben Hom went over it with a fine toothed comb...He
and I even agreed on the color and I think they did a good job..."

It hard to tell from the posted flyer as it's a small scan, but the
paint and lettering on the model looks like they turned out nicely.
However, be aware that during the mid-1930s, the Pennsy did minor
rebuilds on most Class X26 boxcars, replacing the original Murphy
XLA roofs with Hutchins roofs, replacing the original wood doors as
necessary with new Youngstown doors or CRECo or Youngstown doors
salvaged from Class X28 automobile boxcars (spliced together from
auxiliary doors removed during conversion to Class X28A), and
upgrading from KC to AB brakes. Additionally, reinforcement castings
were applied at the truss member junctions as required. Not all
cars received new roofs, and these cars would run into the 1940s
until retired or rebuilt into Class X26C steel boxcars.

Westerfield 3355-3357 model the PRR Hutchins roof cars, and Ted
Culotta covered building this kit (along with the MILW, CP, D&H SS
cars and PMcK&Y rebuilds) in the July 2004 issue of Railroad Model
Craftsman.

The maddening thing about these post-1935 cars is that no two of
them are the same! Since the reinforcement castings were applied as
necessary, they didn't go on all of the truss member junctions.
Some cars that kept Murphy XLA roofs got AB brakes and new doors.
Add in other possible detail variations and you'll see that if
you're fussy about modeling a specific car, model from a photo!


Tim O'Connor wrote:
"Many PRR cars were rebuilt into all-steel X26C's while a couple
hundred USRA X26's are listed in the ORER in 1955 (about 2% of the
original fleet). "

A total of 3500 Class X26 SS boxcars were rebuilt into Class X26C
steel boxcars between 1944 and 1949. Here's a roster summary:

Year/X26/X26C
1944/9765/NEW
1948/6714/2995
1952/4221/3476
1954/816/3457
1956/61/3435
1958/17/3411
1963/3/2617

Not all SS cars were rebuilt - one car remained in revenue service
as of the PC merger, and PRR 564409 survived into July 1977 at
Reynoldsville PA (PRR Color Guide Vol 1, p 70).


Ben Hom