IrwinsJournal.com Presents:

The Unofficial Micro-Trains® Release Report

Issue #166 – October, 2010 (Not affiliated with Micro-Trains Line, Inc.)

Copyright ©2010, George J. Irwin. Please see legal notice at the end of this document.

Hello again everyone! Although there’s the usual wide variety of releases from the folks in Talent, Oregon this month, I suspect that for some N Scalers, the most exciting offering from Micro-Trains might be the one with no lettering at all. See below—quite far below, actually—for that item. Last month I noted that our son has reached high school. Before we get to the news and views, I want to mention another special milestone that’s taken place within the family. My parents celebrated their Fiftieth Anniversary on October 1, 2010. The world certainly has changed since 1960—for one thing, the photo album of their wedding is in glorious black and white!—but it’s certainly nice to know that even today, Love Conquers All. There’s one more important milestone yet to come this year, but we’ll need to wait until next month to get to that. So, let’s get to the business at hand… N SCALE NEW RELEASES:

025 00 710, $20.80 Reporting Marks: CNW 155898. 50 Foot Steel Boxcar, Exterior Post, Single Door, Chicago & North Western. Brown with aluminum roof. Mostly white

lettering including reporting marks on left. Black and white “Employee Owned” herald on right. Approximate Time Period: 1977 (build date) to mid-2000s. The “Employee Owned” herald, adapted in 1972 when the railroad was sold to its employees and discontinued in 1982 when others could once again buy stock in the line, would be somewhat of a key to the Approximate Time Period for this car; Except that it doesn’t look like the cars were in place until late in the timeframe of this specific herald. As we’ll see, though, the trademark is correct. I did dutifully check the accumulation of Official Railway Equipment Registers (ORERs) though, starting with the early 1970s. But the first time I pick up the series in which this car was included is the April 1981 edition. The cars are described as “Box, Steel, Cushion Underframe, Odd and Even Numbers, 25K” and numbered from 155600 to 156199. There were 585 cars in the group at the time. The inside length was 50 feet 6 inches, inside width 9 feet 6 inches, inside height 10 feet 7 inches, outside length 57 feet 11 inches, extreme height 14 feet 11 inches, door opening 10 feet, and capacity 5106 cubic feet or 152,000 pounds. I was wondering whether these cars could have been castoffs from the Rock Island Railroad acquired when The Rock went down for the last time in 1980. But a photo of sister car 155918

on George Elwood’s “Fallen Flags” site ( http://www.rr-fallenflags.org ) shows a build date of September 1977, so it’s also possible that these were new for the North Western. At any rate, the prototype for the MTL 025 body style is the FMC 5077 cubic foot boxcar, so while I couldn’t discern the car’s exact heritage I can tell you that the model isn’t a perfect match for the real one. Various shots of cars in the series also on Fallen Flags reveal that the ends differ from the model, the side sill is a little bit off, and the roof is a bit more peaked. Some folks are more apt to count panels, or ribs, and the seven and six of each either side of the door is accurate. We can do reasonably well with determining the end of the ATP using photos of the exact car (also known around UMTRR HQ as a “bingo”) from RRPhotoArchives.net. As of the last day of October, 2006, the car, still in its “Employee Owned” paint was found in Mexico City. The graffiti both sides of the door, and on the door in fact, would make for an interesting follow-on project. (The same car, and largely the same graffiti!, is shown as of June 2001 on RailcarPhotos.com.) As of March 2009 the 155298 was still carrying CNW reporting marks but was also carrying a Union Pacific shield herald and a different sliding door. So the Approximate Time Period ends somewhere in between. For the record, the ORER for January 2006 showed a total of 367 cars in the group CNW 155600 to 156199 under the UP’s registration.

064 00 090, $14.55 Reporting Marks: CP 503201. 57 Foot TOFC Flat Car, Canadian Pacific.

Black with white lettering including roadname left of center and reporting marks right of center. Approximate Time Period: 1958 (build date) to 1970s at least. I don’t need to go any farther than the dust cover of the Morning Sun “Canadian Pacific Color Guide to Freight and Passenger Equipment” for a bingo on this car, but I will, to Page 98 of that volume. And, well, we have a stand-in here, let’s just make that point. The real car, from the series 503002 to 503851 was only 46 feet long, not 57 feet 6 inches. Even in 1:160 that’s a notable difference. The cars also had safety rails aligned with the hitch at the “A” end; the rails were removed in 1974. The cars were built in 1958 by National Steel Car “using a design of the National Research Council” according to the Color Guide. The photo is from April 1968 so we know that the car was around at least that long in the CP paint scheme used by Micro-Trains. Also on Page 98 is CP 505987 which is a similar 54 foot flat car, which probably would have made a better choice for MTL, at least in terms of length. The ORER for January 1964 will do for a lookup, although there’s not much to transcribe. The only dimension given is the “inside” length of 46 feet, and we already knew that! The description is “Flat, ACF (1) Hitch, Trailer” but the series is given as 503000 to 504999 though there are just 758 cars inhabiting it at the time. An end note states that the cars “are equipped

for loading trailers and have [a] depression in floor for trailer wheels. Ah, rats, another delta to the model. I’ll reference Ian Cranstone’s “Canadian Freight Cars” site ( http://www.nakina.net ) to help with the end of the ATP. Strictly speaking, it’s in 1996 based on Ian’s ORER lookups. But the CP Rail paint was adopted years before that. And a number of these cars were rebuilt from Trailer on Flat Car flats to Container on Flat Car flats numbered into the 520300s in the early 1970s. So I’ll be more conservative and call the ATP in the 1970s although with that “at least” disclaimer.

065 00 691 and 065 00 692, $23.25 each Reporting Marks: UTLX 53164 and UTLX 53166. 39 Foot Single Dome Tank Car, Sunoco. Black with yellow lettering including reporting marks on left. Multicolor Sunoco trademark left of center.

Approximate Time Period: mid-1950’s (1956 build date) to mid-1970’s. [The following is excerpted from the April 2010 coverage of the Z Scale release of this item.] It’s Napthaline, not Sunoco’s gasoline, that’s being advertised on this pair of tank cars. Chemically, it’s C10H8. While it’s mainly used as a chemical intermediate, that is, a chemical used to make other chemicals, you might be familiar with napthaline as the active ingredient in mothballs. Yes, that’s what you’re smelling, and hopefully not very much of it. The Sun Oil Company had its own fleet of over one thousand tank cars with the reporting marks SUNX in the January 1943 ORER, and 898 cars in the January 1955 Equipment Register. But that was down to just 119 in the January 1959 ORER. That data appears to align with the build date of 1956 given by Micro-Trains for these cars, and the fact that Sunoco was leasing cars from Union Tank Car Line (an arrangement that, according to online lookups, is still in place today). Meanwhile, the same January 1959 ORER shows, under the Union Tank Car Company registration, the series 52000 to 54299 which consisted of 553 tank cars with 80,000 pounds capacity and 972 cars with 100,000 pounds capacity, the latter including the road numbers we’re interested in. That 1956 build date looks good since the same UTLX series in the January 1955 ORER doesn’t call out the road numbers present on the Sunoco cars. The book “Classic Freight Cars Volume 2” gives us a bingo on UTLX 53164. It was photographed in 1973 in Mechanicville, New York and the build date is given as 1956 in the caption. The “look and feel” on the model against the prototype is fairly good, although it appears that the real car is a bit longer and has a smaller diameter tank overall than the

Micro-Trains body style. One delta I’ll note—and warning, this is a real nitpick—is that the Sunoco logo used by MTL on the model is an older version than that on the prototype car. I don’t have the exact chronology on this (and yes, I tried!) but the trademark on the real car is more like a 1960’s version and the one on the MTL car, which has a taller “diamond” and the red arrow going through at a steeper angle is more like a 1940’s or 1950’s version. Since then, Sunoco has adopted yet another version of the famous logo, with speed lines in the diamond and italicized lettering, perhaps to reinforce its position as “the official fuel of NASCAR.” The exact two cars are listed in the April 1975 and April 1981 Equipment Registers, and I see them through at least January 1985 where I stopped looking. I’m a little surprised to see the Sunoco trademark on the cars as late as the 1973 photo, since by that time, lessors were looking to be less conspicuous, and that meant trademarks were far less common on tank cars. (Not that they were ever “common,” for that matter.) We also don’t have a good way of knowing the exact date range of the lease of these two cars to what was known then as the Sun Oil Company. So my ATP is admittedly a guess, and a fairly liberal one at that.

073 00 120, $26.80 Reporting Marks: MEC 5055. 40 Foot Steel Boxcar, Single Superior Door, No Roofwalk, Maine Central. Pine green with aluminum roof and yellow door. Mostly yellow lettering including large “MEC” and reporting marks on left. Rounded

rectangular “The Pine Tree Route” herald on right. Simulated interior machinery load included. Approximate Time Period: 1969 to no later than 1984. You’re not seeing double; Micro-Trains did a very similar paint job to this on its “not a reprint” release 20220, road number 8217, from March 2001. (The original run under that catalog number included some cars with the somewhat notorious “Main” Central error.) The sides of the car are about the same, but this time, there’s no roofwalk and that places the model on a different body style. Also, the roof is aluminum. And I suppose I can’t forget that interior load, though as has been noted before, it shouldn’t be visible if the car is moving since the doors should be closed! The use of a different number series should help us with the placement of the Approximate Time Period. Actually, MTL helps us with the car copy: originally built in 1947 in the 6500 to 6749 series, sold between 1969 and 1971, rebuilt and leased back. That information comes from Morning Sun’s “Northern New England Color Guide,” page 43, which accompanies an undated photo of sister car MEC 5052. The builder was Pullman-Standard so these should be one variant or another of the PS-1 car type. The Morning Sun Guide goes into more detail, to be specific, 199 cars were sold and leased back. The photo of the MEC 5052 shows that the side ladders are only half height, so should the 024 body style have been used instead of the 073 body style? In a word: no!

What are the odds of this: the very same MEC 5052 appearing in “Classic Freight Cars Volume 7” in a 1970 photo without roofwalk but with full side ladders! Talk about potentially being led astray… of course this means the ATP is going to be Awfully Approximate indeed. And I’d further suggest that the ladders weren’t all cut down at the same time, meaning that the photos of the 5052 don’t necessarily relate to the history of the 5055 that was used as the road number of the Micro-Trains release. For example, how about yet another sister car, the 5141 as of 1979 found on RailcarPhotos.com with full ladders. There are other online photos on Fallen Flags and RRPictureArchives.net at a minimum, all with full ladders. See what I mean? I’d better get to the ORERs lest I give myself a severe headache. And so we check the April 1970 Equipment Register, where we find the series 5000 to 5199 with just 71 cars. I think the rest were in the rebuilding process. The inside length of these basic “Box, Steel” cars was 40 feet 4 inches, inside width 9 feet 2 inches, inside height 10 feet 5 inches, outside length 44 feet 4 inches, extreme height 15 feet 1 inch, door opening 7 feet (yes, a “door thing”) and capacity 3871 cubic feet or 110,000 pounds. By the July 1974 which is the next ORER I have, we’re up to 193 cars; that’s more like it. The cars are noted as having lading band anchors at that time as well. We’re on the way back down with 123 cars counted in April 1981, but the entire series is gone by April 1984, whether with full or partial ladders.

141 00 040, $22.70 Car Name: “Moose Lake” (will be “ATSF Moose Lake” in website listings) Pullman Heavyweight 10-1-2 Sleeper, Pullman/Santa Fe.

Pullman Green sides and ends. Black roof, underbody and trucks. Gold lettering including small “Pullman” at left and right of letterboard, large “Empire Builder” at center of letterboard and small car name at bottom center. Approximate Time Period: 1927 to 1955. The prototype for this car is actually a Pullman Plan 3585B, which we assume has some differences from the 3585 though it is a 10-1-2 car to be sure. (A look at the Pullman Digital Collection of the Newberry Library didn’t reveal anything obvious.) According to Tom Madden’s “Pullman Project” website (URL http://pullmanproject.org , no “www”) the car was placed in service in December 1927, having been built by Pullman-Standard for Pullman. It was equipped with air conditioning in May 1935 and was sold to the Santa Fe in December 1948 but leased right back to Pullman. It was withdrawn from lease in August 1955. According to information on Steve Sandifer’s web pages on Trainweb.org, it was sold for scrap at that time. The website of the Santa Fe Railway Historical and Modeling Society (found at the URL http://www.atsfrr.com) adds that ten cars in Lot 6123 were built for service on the AT&SF in November 1917. If true, that seems like a long time between build date and placed into

service date! I think the 1927 date is better and I’ve used it for the ATP. It’s noted that during the 1930’s, these ten Plan 3585B cars were rebuilt to Plan 3585E, with the removal of one vestibule and the enlargement of the men’s room. All of the car names were two words ending in “Lake” and starting with Dean, Dell, Echo, Fern, Laval, Lone, Moose, Spear, Star and Swan. The entire group was off the roster and sold for scrap by 1960 after withdrawal from lease. As of 1937 all the Santa Fe’s trains were assigned heavyweight passenger cars except the “Super Chief”. But lightweight passenger cars gradually bumped heavyweights like the “Moose Lake” into more and more secondary service. According to the SFRH&MS, “about the last stand of heavyweight cars on the Santa Fe was in troop train service to and from California during the Korean War, with some showing up in photos taken at that time.”

451 00 240, $20.60 Reporting Marks: CP 712X. 45 Foot Trailer, Canadian Pacific. Aluminum with red “Canadian Pacific Express” lettering outlined in black across side. Road

number at left and right bottom of each side and on ends. Approximate Time Period: 1959 through the decade of the 1960’s. Referring back to the photo on Page 98 of the Morning Sun Color Guide to the CP, we find the prototype for this trailer atop the prototype for the MTL flat car described earlier. And once again, we have a stand in. The MTL 451 body style trailer is 45 feet long and smooth sided with doors at the tail only. But the real CP 712X had horizontally ribbed sides and a side door, at least on the side we can see. The length is probably about 45 feet since the trailer does occupy most of the length of the 46 foot car. The ATP is a bit of a guess based on the paint scheme, which is generally good on the model versus the prototype. The script roadname was introduced circa 1959. The photo dates to 1968 so as with the flat car, we know we’re good to at least there. The “action red” of CP Rail was applied to trailers via a lettering panel, and we would start seeing that in 1968. As with other rolling stock, the change didn’t take place all at once, so I think the decade of the 1970s will work for the ATP, or perhaps a bit longer.

985 00 604, $29.85 Reporting Marks: RBBX 60012. Modified Streamlined Diner Passenger Car, Food Service “Pie Car”, Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus.

Con-Cor diner model with Micro-Trains trucks, couplers and paint. Aluminum with black reporting marks on left. Red and white banner “Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey” across bottom of side. Multicolor “Greatest Show on Earth” globe logos at left and right. Approximate Time Period: At least the year 2000 to present. The most interesting image among the ten of the prototype RBBX 60012 among found on RRPictureArchives.net was taken in April 2008 in Bellefonte, Pennsylvania. The car is shown with a plastic trash bag tied to a grab iron and what appears to be supplies neatly stacked next to the auxiliary door near the center of the car. Not a detail that appears on the model, but we’ll get to that. I’m not sure it was pie ready to be loaded into the “pie car” but it does look like some sort of packages of something. Maybe it’s bottled water. I like this shot because it gives us a “lived in” look, something that you usually don’t get in “train rolling” shots. The earliest shot of the 60012 on RRPictureArchives.net is from the year 2000 so we’re good at least that far back. You’ll be disappointed if you bring out the calipers and micrometer for this model. As noted above, the real RBBX 60012 has an auxiliary door in the side, and the window arrangements differ as well. The general bias of the large windows to one side of the car does help with the “look and feel” though. The real car doesn’t look as “streamlined” as the Con-Cor body style that Micro-Trains is using. All in all, yes, it’s a stand in, but without extensive modification it wouldn’t be easy to get close to the real thing. Micro-Trains’ offering of two different explanations for the term “Pie Car” is intriguing. I’m more inclined to go with the lower case pie as a slang for meals of all types versus the upper case meaning “Privileged Individuals and Employees.” But I wasn’t completely convinced on either count—and of course they’re not mutually exclusive either—so I did a quick ‘net search on “circus + ‘pie car’.” And up popped Trainweb.org and a 2006 interview with the manager of the Pie Car and Food Services on the Red Unit train! I’ll not steal any of the thunder here, but just direct you to http://trainweb.org/carl/Circus2006/PieCar.html for the full text. Fascinating!

N SCALE REPRINTS:

102 00 020, $31.40 Reporting Marks: UP 960857. 60 Foot Excess Height Boxcar, Double Plug Door, Riveted Sides, Union Pacific. Yellow with aluminum trucks, roof, ends and

lower trim; black lettering; large red, white and blue Union Pacific shield herald on left; large multicolor “Automated Railway” logo on right. Approximate Time Period: 1973 through mid-decade of the 2000s. Previous Releases (as catalog 102020): Road Number 960856, October 1997; Road Number 960861, November 1999. I suspect although I’m not completely sure that the nine colors used on this car remains the all-time record for a Micro-Trains paint scheme. While there is now the “four color process” printing used on, among other things, the State Cars and the Ringling Brothers “Billboard” cars, I’m referring to the more traditional decorating via “hits” to the carbody. Whether the high mark for number of colors or not, it certainly drives the relatively high price tag. The previous run, from back in 1999, had a price tag of $22.40 which surprisingly did not rate an exclamation point from me then. The prototype series of cars is quite short, just eight numbers are enough, from 960854 to 960861; and with this reprint, we’ve got 37 ½ percent of that roster covered. The build date on the previous runs of this car is July 1973 and the closest Equipment Register I have is July 1974. The series is described as “Box, Steel, Cushion Underframe, Plug Doors, Racks (Engines)” with AAR Designation “XP.” The inside length was 59 feet 6 inches, inside width 9 feet 2 inches, inside height 12 feet 9 inches, outside length 67 feet 4 inches, extreme height 17 feet, door opening 16 feet and capacity 6973 cubic feet or 169,000 pounds. I know from the previous run that we got to at least 1999 with these cars so I’ll leap ahead to the April 1999 ORER, where seven of the original eight cars remain in three subseries. Five are left in the October 2004 Register in two groups. Officially, the closest I can get to “the present” is the October 2007 ORER, and just one car remains, so unofficially, I don’t think this group of cars gets all the way to The Present. Long time UMTRR Gang Member Joe Shaw comes through with the only two photos I’ve ever seen of these cars (via http://www.krunk.org ). Both the 960857 and the 960861 were captured on August 10, 2002 in West Virginia. Though the paint is pretty shot, and rust is becoming another “color” to add to the original nine, the as delivered paint scheme remains. One data point from the previous MTL run of this car might help explain this: the “return to” instructions route the car to Lima, Ohio, and the Ford plant that was located on the Detroit, Toledo and Ironton. Like many cars of this type and configuration, it was most likely in captive service, and we already know that pool cars from various railroads stayed in their original paint through the 1990’s at least given that they never got close to their home roads or their home paint shops. I’m certainly leaning toward that line of thinking.

109 00 210, $19.40 Reporting Marks: B&O 9936. Heavyweight Depressed Center Flatcar, Commonwealth Trucks, Baltimore and Ohio.

Black with white lettering including reporting marks (only) on left. Simulated covered equipment load included. Approximate Time

Period: mid-1960's (though 1959 build date for this car, see text) to mid-1980s. Previous Release (as catalog 109210): Road Number 9935, May 2002. One first run, one reprint, and we’re done with this series! Just the 9935 and 9936 were part of this particular group of DC flat cars, though the B&O had others. We can leverage and then add to the coverage of MTL’s original run from 2002. One of the nice things about some of my earlier ORERs is that all of the special type cars are listed in one supplemental section in the back. For example, the April 1970 Register, close to the 1969 service date for this car, lists all the “Heavy Capacity and Special Type Flat Cars.” And that includes B&O 9936 and its sister car 9935. Both of these cars are AAR Class FD, with steel and wood decks. The load carrying platform is 21 feet long by 9 feet wide, a good match on the model, and the total length over the couplers is 60 feet 10 inches, close enough on the model. (The couplers hang over a little past that.) Both cars had two six-wheel trucks on 41 foot centers; that metric looks just about exactly the same on the MTL model. The two cars were sisters but not identical twins: the 9935 had a light weight of 126,400 pounds and a capacity of 250,000 pounds, but the 9936 had a light weight of 128,000 pounds and a capacity of 248,000 pounds. You can't be too careful when you’re shipping a generator! The two cars weren’t retired at the same time either; the 9935 was off the roster in 1992 but the 9936 lasted through 1988. We’ll split the difference for an ATP ending of mid-1980s. It turns out that the build date for these cars isn’t the same either. According to the Morning Sun Color Guide to the B&O, the 9935 was constructed in 1953 and the 9936 in 1959. “Both were assembled at DuBois, Pennsylvania starting with a General Steel Castings one piece cast steel body.” There’s a 1971 photo of the 9935 on Page 32 of the Color Guide, carrying the generator load that looks very much like the one the MTL put on its model of the 9935. And then there’s the matter of the paint scheme, simple as it is. Untangling the various formats used by the Baltimore and Ohio is a challenge even for B&O scholars, among which I do not count myself! But there was a general and gradual movement of reporting marks from Railroad Roman to the Chesapeake and Ohio’s Futura Bold font, starting when the C&O took financial control of the B&O in 1963. Knowing exactly when any particular car was repainted is a matter of either diligent research or just plain luck, but I am confident that the 9936 didn’t start with the style of reporting marks that are depicted on the model. I’ll somewhat less confidently go with mid-1960s for the start of the ATP. I’m sure my B&O friends will help out with Incremental Information if I’m completely off base with this.

N SCALE WEATHERED RELEASES:

The following item was announced as an “off-cycle” release via the Micro-Trains website on September 20.

094 44 320, $32.80 Reporting Marks: TCMX 20821. 3 Bay Center Flow® Covered Hopper, The CIT Group/Capital Finance “Evil Pumpkin.”

Gray with mostly black lettering including reporting marks on left. Side B (shown below) is weathered with mostly brown streaks. Side A (shown above) is decorated with large format graffiti: a large orange and black jack o’lantern (“evil pumpkin”) with green fields and black scrawls at left and right (including “Trick or Treat” on right). Only the reporting marks remain visible on this side. Approximate Time Period: 2008 to, probably, the present. Previous Releases: None. This car is part of the lease fleet of The CIT Group and more specifically belongs to the series TCMX 20752 to 20826. (Because this is a unique car, I didn’t do my usual ORER lookups.) The outside length of these cars is 60 feet 2 inches and the prototype photo (!) that had been posted on the MTL website further indicates that this car is a later design covered hopper than the MTL 094 body style. I suspect some people will be interested in this information, but many others won’t. The Halloween theme is going to be a sure hit with the “I just like it” crowd (including some of my readers to be sure, and at least one unofficial reviewer!) and the fact that it’s based on a real car will be a selling point. In fact, when I last checked in with MTL, this car was very close to being sold out at the factory, though at “press time” there was not yet official word of this. In addition to the one image MTL had on their website, I found three other photos on RRPictureArchives.net where it’s noted “someone has painted an Evil Pumpkin” on the car. The photos are from 2008, specifically, May 17 and... wait for it... October 31. Happy Halloween! Following the release of my “UMTRR Update”—which I wanted to get to you fast, since I knew this car would be popular—I did a more detailed comparison of the, er, “lettering.” It turns out that the prototype has a particular word after the “Trick Or Treat” which is not suitable for general audience N Scale layouts! (It rhymes with “riches.”) And so it doesn’t appear on the MTL model. I take no issue with this, since I have two kids and I’d rather they enjoy Halloween without any expletives.

N SCALE RUNNER PACKS:

In addition to the below announcement, Runner Pack #44, Four New York Central gondolas with loads, is available. UMTRR coverage was in the April 2010 issue. The following item is in pre-order at present and is NOT currently available. Scheduled delivery is April 2011. UMTRR coverage is being provided ahead of the actual release of Runner Packs in order to facilitate pre-order decisions; pre-orders close October 29. Scheduled April 2011 Release: Runner Pack #50: 993 00 050, $139.95 Reporting Marks/Road Numbers: Not available at this time. Quantity three of 89 Foot TOFC flat cars with loads, Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey. Note: Below image is MTL artist’s representation and may not match exact product.

Painted in 1970’s “Blue Train” paint scheme of white with red, white and blue lettering including “Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus” name across center of flat cars. Loads consist of two covered vehicles and four wagons. Wagons are painted in white with red, white and blue RBB&B device on sides and blue, black and yellow “Greatest Show on Earth” logo on ends. Approximate Time Period: decade of the 1970’s (we presume). As with last month’s announcement of the RBB&B Runner Packs of 1970s passenger cars, we have very little on which to base any sort of reasonable “pre-view.” I think the selling point of this trio won’t be the TOFC flats anyway, but the four circus wagons that will top two of them. Based on the artist’s rendition, they will be quite elaborately painted and individually numbered (15 to 18). The previous Runner Pack #39 didn’t have end markings on the wagons. I’m sure that contributes to the considerable price tag for this Runner Pack, and of course the 89 foot flat cars have never really been inexpensive either. N SCALE SPECIAL EDITION RELEASES:

In addition to the below release, Micro-Trains has announced the availability of the “D-Day Commemorative Locomotive and Caboose Set” (993 21 101, $169.95) and the “Eerie Express Train Set” (993 21 110, $189.95). Images of both sets are on the MTL website at this writing and will be also be available on the UMTRR website after the next update (which should be by month-end) via the “2010 Month by Month” page.

074 00 126, $23.95 40 Foot Boxcar, Plug Door, Without Roofwalk, Full Ladders, Presidential Series #26: James Garfield (20th President). Cream sides and ends with green roof and black lettering. Multicolor rendition of the Seal of the President of the United States and dates in office

on left. Name of Vice President, home state of president and party affiliation at bottom left. Multicolor portrait of president in front of red, white and blue rendition of American flag in service during presidency on right. Birth and death dates in small lettering at bottom right of side. If you’re not particularly a Presidential Scholar, you could probably excuse yourself for not knowing much about the tenure of James Abram Garfield. It didn’t last very long and Garfield didn’t do very much; what he did do was not especially memorable. He might actually be best known for being the second president to have been assassinated, although he is also noted for being the only person to be a standing member of the House of Representatives, a Senator-elect and a President-elect at the same time. Garfield was born on a farm on November 19, 1831 in what was then a very rural part of Cuyahoga County, Ohio, now part of the Cleveland Metropolitan Area. Garfield worked his way through school and did not make it to college until age twenty-three. He graduated from Williams College in Massachusetts and returned to the Eclectic Institute in Ohio (later known as Hiram College) where he’d previously studied to take a teaching position. He eventually became president of the Eclectic Institute and married Lucretia Rudolph whom he’d met there. Garfield was a member of the church of the Disciples of Christ, a Republican and a steadfast abolitionist. He became the youngest member of the Ohio legislature in 1859. When the Civil War broke out, Garfield served admirably on the Union side and was the youngest officer to hold the rank of Major General. While still in the Army, he was elected to the House of Representatives without even campaigning, and moved directly from the armed forces to Congress in December 1863. Garfield served eight terms. While initially known as a radical, he tempered his views, although some felt that was more opportunistic than pragmatic. Garfield was implicated in the Crédit Mobilier of America scandal as one of many Representatives who took stock in the company as an incentive to keep funding going to it for the building of the Union Pacific’s portion of the Transcontinental Railroad. (In short, the Crédit Mobilier was controlled by the same people that ran the Union Pacific, and the UP paid inflated prices for construction billed by Crédit Mobilier, all at the public’s expense.) Garfield had become a financial expert and a backer of “hard money” or gold and silver-backed currency which made him popular with the banking industry, which would have made it difficult for him to extricate himself from the Crédit Mobilier scandal by claiming ignorance. But he was relatively unscathed by the affair and withstood political attacks about his involvement.

Another situation was more of a threat. The Republican Party to which Garfield belong was becoming more and more divided between the “Stalwarts,” led by Senator Roscoe Conkling of New York, who believed in punishing the post-Civil War South and keeping then-President U.S. Grant in office. They derided their rivals, who with their leader Senator James Blaine of Maine were more focused on high tariffs, as “Half-Breeds” who were not truly Republican. (I suppose any parallel you’re drawing right now to “RINOs” or “Republicans In Name Only” is purely coincidence, but it seems that history does repeat itself, or at least echo.) For the Election of 1876, Garfield supported Rutherford B. Hayes for the Presidency as a compromise between the Stalwarts and the Half-Breeds, and was part of the Congressional committee that awarded Hayes a number of contested states and thus the election. (Leading to the nicknames for Hayes: “Rutherfraud” and “His Fraudulency,” as noted when Micro-Trains did the Hayes car in September 2009.) During the Hayes presidency, Garfield served as House Minority Leader. Hayes had vowed to be a one term president, so for the Election of 1880 there was another free-for-all at the Republican Convention. Once again U.S. Grant and Senator Blaine of Maine contended for the nomination. Garfield was head of the Convention Rules Committee and nominated then-Treasury Secretary John Sherman of Garfield’s native Ohio; like Hayes, Sherman was thought of as a bland, non-polarizing choice. But it was Garfield who received the nomination on the thirty-sixth ballot after the Blaine and Sherman interests aligned against those for Grant. Garfield realized that he needed the support of both the Stalwarts and the Half-Breeds, and accepted Chester Arthur as his running mate. Meanwhile, the Democrats picked Winfield Scott Hancock, who issue-wise wasn’t that different from Garfield. Of course we know who won, but I didn’t know that it was the closest contest in terms of the popular vote than any other in American History: a margin of 7368 votes according to the Miller Center ( http://millercenter.org/academic/americanpresident ), or less than one-tenth of one percent. But Garfield was ahead in electoral votes by a wider margin of 214 to 155 and was elected. He was aided in victory by Senator Conkling of New York, who became outraged when Garfield ignored his “senatorial courtesy” selections for key posts in the new administration, especially the plum job of the Collectorship of the Port of New York. Though the Republicans had managed to unite sufficiently to get Garfield elected, the Stalwarts within the GOP still carried a bit of a grudge. One man in particular, Charles J. Guiteau, carried his views to the extreme. On the morning of July 2, 1881 as Garfield walked through the Baltimore and Potomac Railroad Station in Washington, he was shot in the back by Guiteau, who is said to have exclaimed, “I am a Stalwart of the Stalwarts! Arthur is President now!” It’s believed that if Garfield had received better medical treatment, he might have survived the attack, but his health deteriorated. Moving him to Long Branch, New Jersey for time in the sea air was of no help, and the 20th President died eighty days after being shot, on September 19, 1881 with his wife at his bedside. Perhaps Garfield’s greatest accomplishment was posthumous, as Chester Arthur continued his efforts to reform government patronage. Even so, he is thought of as one of the four “lost presidents” who followed the Civil War.

I actually knew the answer to the Trivia Question without having to look, thanks to previous research I’ve done for this series. (Pause for self-pat on back.) The key item in the question is that this Chief Executive’s father conducted the swearing-in ceremony. It wasn’t in the White House, the Capitol, or even in Washington, but in his family home in Vermont. That would be the 30th President, Calvin Coolidge, and we’ll have a couple of interesting trivia items coming with next month’s coverage including one of my all time favorite funny lines from a motion picture. Meanwhile, what do I have to do around here to win one of those Presidential Oath cars? No, I haven’t yet… and we’re running out of Presidents! Well, you know you need to send your entry to mtl@micro-trains.com, and I certainly wish you better luck than I’ve had. Nn3 SCALE (NARROW GAUGE): No releases this month. Z SCALE NEW RELEASES:

500 00 661 and 500 00 662, $22.20 each Reporting Marks: MKT 97649 and 97664. 40 Foot Steel Boxcar, Single Youngstown Door, Missouri-Kansas-Texas (“The Katy”).

Boxcar red (brown) with white lettering including large reporting marks on left and herald / slogan “The Katy Serves the Southwest” on right. Approximate Time Period: mid-1950s (build date of 1956 given by MTL) to early 1980s. We start in an unusual place for this coverage: a sister car that was produced by MTL’s “brother” company. How’s that again? Well, Catalog Number 4503 of the Kadee Quality Products Company is a 40 foot PS-1 boxcar decorated the same way with reporting marks MKT 97772. (Discontinued in July 2002, by the way.) As you probably know, the Edwards Brothers, Keith and Dale, split the original Kadee company into the “new” Kadee and Micro-Trains back in 1990. But that doesn’t mean I can’t reference one brother’s company when covering the other one! Kadee gave 1954 as the build date of the 97772, and it turns out that the series MKT 97301 to 97800, which includes both numbers that Micro-Trains has released, is in the ORER for January 1955 with all 500 possible cars. So I’m not sure that MTL’s given build date of 1956 is correct; I will hedge with a “mid-1950s” start for the Approximate Time Period. As long as I have that ORER handy, here are the dimensions: inside length 40 feet 6 inches, inside width 9 feet 2 inches, inside height 10 feet 6 inches, outside length 41 feet 10 inches, extreme height 15 feet, door opening 6 feet, capacity 3808 cubic feet or 100,000 pounds. An end note discloses that these cars had 20 feet 8 inches’ worth of nailable steel flooring in the center of the car.

I get a bingo on the 97664 on RailcarPhotos.com much later in its service life, specifically November 1977 as found in Fullerton, California. Somewhat surprisingly, the boxcar retains its roofwalk. Contrast this with a 1969 photo of MKT 92219 in “Classic Freight Cars Volume 8” which has the same paint scheme and no running board. Anyway, the use of a Youngstown door is validated as that’s what appears in the photo of the 97664. Since Kadee also did this car and are very particular about exact matches, I would expect the MTL model to be very close to the prototype as well, and it is. I note that the Kadee model used a five panel Superior door, so it’s likely that there was a mix across the prototype series. Since the photo is from 1977, I jumped all the way from 1955 to the April 1976 edition of the ORER to pick up the chase of the Approximate Time Period. The series had been reduced to just two hundred possible numbers, 97601 to 97800, and held 138 cars. In April 1981’s Equipment Register that was down to 124 cars, but by April 1984 which is the next ORER I have in the accumulation, they’re all gone. From the mid-1950s to the early 1980s isn’t too bad of an ATP, although “add weathering” for the later part of that span. I think that some of the original cars had been rebuilt and perhaps reappeared as the red and white boxcars with the large “M K T” as MTL has modeled in N Scale.

511 00 110, $22.20 Reporting Marks: CNIS 413028. 50 Foot Steel Boxcar, Exterior Post, Plug Door, CN North America (Canadian National). Gray with mostly white lettering including reporting marks on left. White and light gray “CN North America” herald on right.

Approximate Time Period: mid 1990s to early 2000s at least. I wondered whether Micro-Trains had suddenly switched to black and white for one photo in the Micro-News. (Fun fact: “The Short Line,” which was merged into the “Micro-News” in July 2006, used black and white images through July 1999.) Viewers of the MTL website might have been wondering the same thing. But there’s no need to adjust your monitor, or in my case, reading glasses. This car is really gray, and it’s uniquely painted. No reprints possible here! A photo of the exact car CNIS 413028 can be found within the pages of the CN Cyclopedia (main URL http://cnlines.ca or more directly via http://cnlines.ca/CNcyclopedia/box/ , no “www” in either case). It’s confirmed there that this is one of only four cars to wear the “map and noodle” paint scheme. The other three are, or were: a combination door boxcar, CN 557115 (not close in body style appearance to anything I know of in Z Scale) and cylindrical covered hoppers CN 371897 and CN 383381. The use of the CNIS reporting marks, denoting international service, is solely on the boxcar MTL modeled.

The photo in the CN Cyclopedia was taken in Edmonton in October 1997, but I’ve gleaned from captions with the other “map and noodle” cars that the scheme could have been around as early as 1993. So the “early 1990s” mentioned in the MTL car copy could be just fine. The 511 body style might not be considered just fine against the prototype, though, as there are differences most notably diagonals either side of the plug door and an end that’s not the same as on the Micro-Trains car. The real 431028 was built by National Steel Car in 1980. As a representative ORER for the entire group of cars from when we believe the 413028 was painted this way, we’ll grab the October 1996 edition. The series CNIS 413000 to 413199 was of AAR Designation “XP” and described as “Box, Steel Lining, Hardwood Floor, Plug Doors, 50K.” It has an inside length of 50 feet 6 inches, inside width 9 feet 6 inches, inside height 11 feet, outside length 55 feet 9 inches, extreme height 15 feet 6 inches, door opening 10 feet, and capacity 5277 cubic feet or 194,000 pounds. There were 190 of the possible 200 cars in service at the time. It’s extraordinarily difficult to pin down an ATP for a single car, this being no exception. I can tell you that the Canadian Freight Car Gallery ( http://freight.railfan.ca , no “www”) shows it existing in November 2002 in somewhat impaired paint, probably the result of patching in a different color gray than originally used to cover, er, “extra decorating” (graffiti). So we can take the ATP out to the early part of the 2000s “at least.”

540 00 101 and 540 00 102, $33.30 each Reporting Marks: FEC 71997 and FEC 72006. Gunderson Husky-Stack Car With Container, Florida East Coast Railroad. Red with silver platforms and mostly white lettering including reporting marks on left. One 40 foot container included: Red and white “K Line” (the 101) or blue, white and red “APL” (the 102). Approximate Time Period: mid-2000s to present. Back more than a generation, the Florida East Coast might have been known as the “Speedway to America’s Playground,” and decades before that, as “The Railroad that Went out to Sea” (via their Overseas Railroad to Key West). And I tend to think of the line in that manner as well. It’s not really true anymore! Today’s Florida East Coast is part speedway for fast freights shepherded by modern diesels, and part heavy hauler of minerals carried in hundreds of aggregate hoppers. And its lineup no longer contains blue boxcars with yellow slogans. Instead, the roster is more than almost half comprised of single well cars as of the October 2007 ORER. Two of those cars in the 70000s number series were selected by Micro-Trains.

But there is a problem, that’s about five feet long in real life and about a quarter inch long when reduced to Z Scale. The prototype FEC single well cars are for 53 foot trailers and containers, whereas the MTL 540 body style is built for 48 foot containers. Dave Ferrari was first to point this out to me via e-mail to UMTRR HQ and adds that these cars are AP Husky 53s. MTL’s depiction of the paint scheme is just about spot on versus the prototype as found on RRPictureArchives.net. And it goes as far as to repeat the “53” legend right on the car. To be fair, these cars can accommodate standard size containers: two 20’s, a 40, a 48 or a 53. MTL’s inclusion of their forty foot container may help mitigate the look of the compromise here. How far back do these cars go? From the October 2007 ORER, where there are 1247 cars numbered from 71550 to 72809 (which is, all by itself, 21 percent of the FEC’s total rolling stock of 5848 pieces) I went in reverse through the Equipment Register Accumulation. It didn’t take long: it appears that these cars were added to the roster between October 2004 and January 2006. Good thing I’ve been picking up those more recent copies, although I certainly need to find something that gets us closer to 2010. The photo of the 71997 on RRPictureArchives.net is from May 2009, and I can’t imagine anything but “the present” as the logical span of the ATP.

970 01 110, $185.95 Road Number: 7325 (preceded by “SP” in website listings). SD40-2 Diesel, Southern Pacific. Gray with mostly red ends and white sill stripe. Gray frame, trucks, and handrails. White “speed lettering” roadname on long hood.

White roadnumber on cab. White initials on nose. Approximate Time Period: Late 1980s to early 2000s. The “Speed Lettering” version of the SP’s roadname is my favorite of all the Espee paint schemes. (At least for diesels—there is that “Daylight,” you see.) This scheme was introduced following the 1988 takeover of the SP by Rio Grande Industries, parent of the Denver and Rio Grande Western, in a “minnow swallows whale” sort of transaction railroad-wise. The merged railroad kept the SP name but also kept the “speed lettering” of the Rio Grande, adopting it—very well, I opine—to the Southern Pacific name. This particular locomotive was built in 1966. According to the UtahRails website, the SP had 86 units originally numbered in the 8400s. Constructed as straight SD40s—not SD40-2s, the units were all rebuilt and renumbered by the SP at Sacramento, California in 1980 and 1981, when they were redesignated SD40Rs. The Union Pacific took possession of 83 of the 86 units when it merged the SP in 1996 but didn’t renumber them. Retirement of these units followed during the period 1997 to 2004, with the 7325 specifically on September 16, 2002. A

webpage on Helm Leasing units over on “The Diesel Shop” has the 7325 going to GE and then to Helm as its HLCX 6339, but that’s outside of our ATP. I don’t know what the 7325 and two of its fellow SP units were doing in Chattahoochee, Florida on June 18, 1994, but they were caught and photographed there and the image is posted on RRPictureArchives.net. The photo isn’t quite the right angle to do a feature by feature comparison between model and prototype. The one thing I always check for, namely, dynamic brakes, are there. But it looks like the rear fan configuration of the real 7325 differs from the model. There are better pictures of the SD40Rs on Richard Percy’s “Espee Modeler’s Archive” (URL http://espee.railfan.net , no “www”). Z SCALE REPRINTS: No releases this month. Z SCALE WEATHERED RELEASES:

The following item was announced as an “off-cycle” release via the Micro-Trains website on September 20.

540 44 082, $39.95 Reporting Marks: NOKL 2101xx (last two digits of road number obscured). Gunderson Husky-Stack Car With Container, Northwestern Oklahoma Railroad.

Brown with mostly white lettering including reporting marks on left and “Husky-Stack” trade name on right. Mostly black weathering streaks on car. Multicolor graffiti on one side of car. Includes one 40 foot APL container (also weathered). Originally released in unweathered form in March 2009 as catalog number 540 00 082. Approximate Time Period: 2000 to present. Going back to the March 2009 UMTRR, I’ll excerpt that this car is in a series of singles, not articulated multi-unit cars, so we’re OK there, and that the Year 2000 as the start of the ATP is fairly precise since the car series (210100 to 210249) is not in the April 1999 Official Railway Equipment Register but is in the January 2000 ORER. The Northwestern Oklahoma is the “holding railroad” for First Union Leasing. In March 2009 and again in the “UMTRR Update” for September, I suggested that the NOKL wasn’t the original owner of these cars but couldn’t find anything about the car’s heritage. Long time UMTRR Gang Member Joe Shaw checked in: “I can confirm that several NOKL 2101xx cars have July 1991 build dates.” Joe cites a Chad Hewitt post on the “model intermodal” list that the series GBRX 2400-2549 was built June and July 1991 in Portland, OR. (GBRX is assigned to Gunderson.) These cars CRLE (Coe Rail) 5400-5549 were remarked from GBRX in mid to late 1994, with the AEI tag dating from May 1994. (Coe Rail was an operating company for Greenbrier/Gunderson.) These cars began moving to NOKL 210100-

210249 from CRLE in late 1999 / early 2000. “The last car I shot in the CRLE series was on January 3, 2004,” Joe reports. Also, some of these cars have recently (2009+) been shortened from 48 foot to 40 foot wells, getting full repaints in the process, 210172 and 210178 at least.”

Z SCALE RUNNER PACKS: In addition to the below announcement, Runner Pack #22, four CP Rail boxcars, has been released. UMTRR coverage was in the April 2010 issue. The following item is in pre-order at present and is NOT currently available. Scheduled delivery is April 2011. UMTRR coverage is being provided ahead of the actual release of Runner Packs in order to facilitate pre-order decisions; pre-orders close October 29.

Scheduled April 2011 Release: Runner Pack #28: 994 00 028, $69.95 Reporting Marks: MOBX 11103, 11105, 11124 and 11136. Quantity four of Mobil Oil 39 foot single dome tank cars. White including frame and details; black trucks and couplers. Black lettering including reporting marks on left. Blue and red 1950’s Mobil trademark on right. Approximate Time

Period: late-1950s to mid-1960s. Previous Releases (as catalog 14410, now 530 00 100): Road Number 11129, September 1993; Road Number 11125, February 2003. The June 2010 UMTRR had a pretty extensive discussion of Mobil Oil as part of the “pre-view” of the N Scale Runner Pack #46. I’ll refer you to that issue for that part of the story. But I will mention that the trademark used on these cars actually had a pretty narrow Approximate Time Period, as logos go. It was introduced in 1954 and phased out in 1966 with the introduction of the still used large blue “Mobil” with red “o” on a white sign. The ORER Accumulation was not very informative. The listings for Mobil during the ATP are buried way in the back of the volumes, in condensed form that gives series of cars but no details or car counts. The build date on the previous reprint was 1926 and the apparent service date in 1961, which is of a little help I suppose, but the paint scheme remains the key driver of the ATP. We do know that the series 11100 to 11199 was still extant in 1964 and consisted of some unspecified number of 10,000 gallon capacity AAR class TMI tank cars, the “I” standing for “Insulated.” There were a total of 1,951 cars on the roster, all tankers. By April 1970 the total had dropped to 1,526 but the series in question had expanded to 10100 to

11149. I’d question whether the cars still wore the modeled paint scheme by then, given the change in the logo. I'd guess that basic black would have taken over as the color for all MOBX tank car equipment, and so I’m calling the ATP at the mid-1960’s. Modern ExxonMobil tank cars still roam the rails, but now carry the somewhat awkward reporting marks “XOMX”. Not nearly as elegant as a Pegasus in flight.

Z SCALE SPECIAL EDITION RELEASES:

502 00 528, $22.95 Reporting Marks: MD 1788. 40 Foot Box Car, Plug Door, Maryland State Car. Aluminum sides, black roof, ends, sills and door

hardware; blue and black primary lettering including reporting marks, state name and outline map on left. Four color process graphics including state flag, state bird (Baltimore Oriole) and state flower (Black-Eyed Susan) on right. Twenty-eighth release in the Z Scale States of the Union series. [The following is largely reprinted from the April 2004 UMTRR coverage of the N Scale release of this car.] No slight to Marylanders, I hope, but I had to think a while before coming up with the first time I set foot in the state. I’m pretty sure now that it was on a family trip to the area taken just before I could drive, and the destination was the famous Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Museum and its collection. Since then, all of my family has at one time or another set foot in the Old Line State including visits to Annapolis and Baltimore with its fabulous National Aquarium. Maryland was the seventh state to join the Union and did so on April 28, 1788. Western Europeans had begun settling the area about 150 years previously; the Maryland Charter was granted to Cecilius Calvert, the 2nd Lord Baltimore, in 1632. In 1649 religious freedom was granted by law in the colony. But slavery for life was permitted by law fifteen years later. The famous Mason-Dixon Line was surveyed by those two gentlemen in the mid 1760’s. Marylanders who signed the Declaration of Independence in 1776 included one Charles Carroll; when it was remarked that his common name meant it would be easier to hide from the British, he quickly added “of Carrollton” to ensure that they would know exactly who he was! While Maryland was active in the American Revolution, it was a battle of the War of 1812 that probably overshadowed those; watching the bombardment of Fort McHenry in Baltimore Harbor on September 13, 1814, Francis Scott Key wrote the lyrics to “The Star Spangled Banner,” our National Anthem and arguably one of the most difficult songs to sing in American History.

Commerce was big in Maryland, so transportation was key. The National Road between Cumberland and Wheeling, Virginia (later West Virginia) began the process of opening the state to the West circa 1818. The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad was chartered in 1827 and the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal was begun a year later. And in 1844 Samuel F.B. Morse demonstrated the telegraph. Maryland was a crossroads of the Civil War, and various towns were held for ransom by Confederates! Famous Marylanders, and just to clarify, I mean people born in the state per website information, include abolitionist Frederick Douglas, explorer Matthew Henson, slugger Babe Ruth and “iron man” Cal Ripken Jr., singer Billie Holiday, writers H. L. Mencken and Upton Sinclair, the somewhat difficult to categorize Frank Zappa, and Sesame Street’s Elmo-- well, actually, the puppeteer Kevin Clash who is the little red monster’s heart and voice, and Jim Henson himself, creator of the Muppets. And how about that flag? The design is taken from the “escutcheon” or “shield,” in the first Lord Baltimore’s Seal, dating from the 1630s. Black and gold quarters are the arms of Lord Baltimore’s family, the Calverts. Red and white quarters are those of his mother’s family, the Crosslands. And it’s also true that some states have some, well, unusual official designations, but this one is probably justified: In 1989, the Maryland Blue Crab was designated the State Crustacean.

HOn3 SCALE (NARROW GAUGE): No releases this month. MTL ANNOUNCEMENTS: Here’s that perhaps most popular item among N Scalers I mentioned at the top of the column: The Pullman Heavyweight 10-1-2 Sleeper is now available in Undecorated (141 00 001, $20.40). I would have called it “painted unlettered” since it does come in pullman green with black roof and underframe. I think MTL will sell as many of these as it wants to, but as with other “undecs,” supplies may be limited. Don’t forget that Jerry Laboda has compiled a list of all possible names for this car, see http://passcarphotos.info/Varnish/Pullman_3410.htm . As perhaps a strike back at the “generic” couplers that seek to take away market share from Micro-Trains, MTL has released a very reasonably priced bulk pack of their 1016 type couplers. Catalog 001 10 003 has ten pairs of unassembled “Universal Body Mount” medium shank type with reverse draft angle for an MSRP of just $12.90. That’s $1.29 a pair, or probably right around a dollar each at street price. The 1016’s are not completely universal, but they do have a large variety of applications including on many widely available locomotives and common freight cars. Staying with N Scale, the latest load is scrap for the 50 foot gondolas, catalog 499 43 965, two for $8.95. There’s also a new “Packing House” building kit (499 90 915, $34.95) which struck me as being usable for numerous kinds of small businesses. MTL says the footprint on this kit is three inches by six inches, a nice fact to know.

In Z Scale there are several announcements. First, there is a “Two Story Country House” kit (799 09 934, $29.95) which has a somewhat different rear porch. Or maybe you can turn the house around and make that back porch the front porch, and use the front porch as the back porch. See the image at left for a better idea of this than I can describe in words. The footprint on this kit is 2 inches by 2 ½ inches.

Continuing with the structures, there are two “Pier Packs” now available, two to a package. The “narrow” piers measure ¾ inch by 5 1/8 inch (799 90 935, $19.95) and the “wide” piers are 1 1/8 inch by 6 1/8 inches (799 90 936, $24.95). These are meant to be utilized with previous Z Scale kits for a full pier scene, but again could be used in other applications, including as smaller N Scale docks I would think. Finally in Z are Decorated Girder Bridges in the Micro-Track line. These are silver (OK, or aluminum) with a small herald at the center of each girder. First choices are Union Pacific (990 40 952, $16.35) and CSX (990 40 953, $13.15), and I suspect there will be more to come.

DISCONTINUED ALERT: Sigh, another great big Bye-Bye Board again this month. We’ll start with the narrow gauge cars. In Nn3, there’s just one, the Sandy River and Rangeley Lakes boxcar (800 00 150, October 2007). In HOn3, there are three: the second number of the Rio Grande flat car (855 00 032, January 2009), the Sumpter Valley flat car with load (855 00 060, October 2009) and the fourth 30 foot log car with load (865 00 040, June 2009). We’ll start on the N Scale list with the weathered releases: the Santa Fe boxcar (021 44 110, mid-month July), the Lehigh Valley boxcar (024 44 020, mid-month March), and the Burlington Northern covered hopper (099 44 090, mid-month August). We’ll continue with cars from last month, and a bit of a surprise on these two considering that previous runs weren’t exactly barn-burners: the Central Vermont door-and-a-half boxcar (029 00 050) and the New York Central stock car (035 00 040). Maybe it was the laser-cut accessory kits enclosed with each car that helped sales along. Also leaving the building from last month is the Ontario Northland gondola (105 00 190). One each of a “virtual two pack” of gondolas is gone: the Koppers with coke container load (105 00 711, August 2009) and the New York Central with cement container load (105 00 721, March) with the other number of each release still available. We’ll cover the rest of the 1:160 sellouts in catalog number order: the Ashley, Drew & Northern x-post boxcar reprint (025 00 590, June 2009); the Nickel Plate Road boxcar (032 00 410, September 2009); the Grover Cleveland presidential car (074 00 116, December 2009); the Conrail boxcar (077 00 180, May 2009); the Chessie System/C&O Two Bay Center Flow (092 00 160, November 2009); the Minnesota Soybean Three Bay Center Flow (094 00 300, July 2009); Evans Covered Hoppers for Comet Rice (099 00 070, March 2009) and Louis-Dreyfus (099 00 080, April 2009, and I could say “No covered hopper for you!” given the Seinfeld connection!); the Grand Trunk Western excess height boxcar reprint (104 00 010, February) and the TTX/Frisco auto rack (112 00 160, March 2009).

In Z Scale we’ve also got a train full of outs, which we’ll take in catalog number order. One of these days I’ll come up with a better and shorter way to say “other number still available”… anyway, we start with both numbers of the Missouri Pacific “Eagle” boxcars (June 2009). The second number for “The Rock” boxcar has left the building (503 00 042, December 2008, first number also gone). The first number for the pre-BN Burlington boxcar has sold out (503 00 061, July 2009, second number already gone). Plug door boxcars out include the first number of the Baltimore and Ohio in blue (507 00 401, April 2009, second number still available) and both numbers of the Canadian National “website” car (507 00 41x, May 2009). The fourth and seventh Ringling Brothers billboard boxcars have left town (515 00 604, November 2009 and 515 00 607, March). The second numbers of two black and white gondolas have rolled away with the first numbers already gone: Erie Lackawanna (522 00 172, September 2008) and Norfolk Southern (522 00 202, May 2009). The first number of last month’s British Columbia bulkhead flat car is outta here already (527 00 061). And the first number of the Koppers tank car is history (530 00 271, August 2009, first number still available). Finally there are three locomotives to add to the list. Two are GP35s: the first number of the Missouri Pacific (981 01 121, June 2008, second number also gone) and Montana Rail Link (981 01 181, May 2009, second number still available). And the third is the Southern Pacific GP9 (982 01 120, December 2008). But wait, there’s more! I’ve managed over the past couple of months to catch up with the Runner Pack sellouts, and as of the beginning of September I’m up to date on the UMTRR website. Yes, it is October, which means I’ll be back at this again shortly… INCREMENTAL INFORMATION DEPARTMENT/OOPS PATROL: Nothing received or noted since last time. AND THAT’S ALL FOR THIS MONTH: Until next time, do the best you can! Cheers, George [Legalese: You’ve received this because you’ve requested a UMTRR e-mail subscription. If there’s been some mistake, please let me know via e-mail at umtrr@irwinsjournal.com, including “UMTRR” in the subject line (all other e-mail including to any other addresses in the irwinsjournal.com domain is automatically deleted unread). You may also reply to this e-mail, but PLEASE delete attachments and other text first. All information contained herein is supplied “as is” and no warranties are express or implied. Trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Images of releases provided through courtesy of Micro-Trains Line, Inc. The Federal Trade Commission considers this effort to be an “endorsement.” I assume readers can make up their own minds.]