All,

The retirement of the Westerfields, along with Wright Trak's new offering, has forced me to examine the VM, VA, and VS populations during WWII as part of attempting to build a "balanced" fleet.

I want to avoid the "fleet balancing" debate, but would like to inquire as to the available ventilator models in HO.

It appears the Westerfield 40' model, based on a USRA DS box car (Kit #7000 series), another Westerfield FEC 40' (kit #6300 series) that was no longer in service as a VA car by WWII, and the Wright Trak model are the only options available today?

Looking at the F&C web site, they list a transition FEC VA (kit 6410), but the photo looks like the vents are not in the kit. An old Walthers catalog lists kit 6400, but it is not on F&C's web site (suspect it is because 6400 was a flat kit, and 6410 is a one-piece body kit). This car is a little problematic for fleet building since this car was a small fleet (200 cars total, with less than a third of them still listed as VA in 1943 - the rest were converted to type XI)

I do not have references to the SAL class V9 car, but the number on the Wright Trak literature (28156) corresponds with a 36' car in the '43 ORER (in fact in '43 all SAL VA's are listed with IL between 35'9" and 36'1"), but I have not seen the length of the Wright Trak kit listed anywhere.

The '43 ORER recapitulation lists the following:

10,292 VA/VM under 40', the vast majority being within a few inches of 36' IL.

3,325 40' VA/VM, with 82% of those being registered under CofG (100 under C&O, the balance ACD, which I think is the Westerfield 7000 series car)

A quick look at the "Post-war" fleet book suggests that each Road's ventilator class had some distinctive door related feature - either the vents, or the door tracks - which seem to vary greatly, along with the usual distinctions of side sill style/visibility and underbody/center sills, so I am not sure the Wright Trak will be very "bashful" to fill the gaps in other roads.

Is there now, or has there in the past, been any other VA/VM models offered in HO?

Once again more 36' foot cars may be missing from my WWII fleet - I would like to get to a point where visitors report they are surprised at the number of 36' cars in the fleet - rather than exclaim - "what is that short car" when one of only a few 36' cars passes by.

Trying to figure out how to fill this gap. As an alternative, confirmation of the gap is also welcome.

Many Thanks,
Dave Evans