Essential Freight Cars

Years ago, Ted Culotta had a series of articles in Railroad Model Craftsman called Essential Freight Cars. The (primarily) detailed cars that he felt should be represented on nearly every post-war/transition-era layout. The majority of the models in the articles were built from Sunshine Models resin kits. A few of the prototypes were available at the time in plastic, and a few others have been released since. While there were 45 articles, two of them were two-part. These are the subjects of the articles:

1. SL-SF Single Sheathed Boxcars 
2. GN Double Sheathed Boxcars 
3. MILW Single Sheathed Boxcars
4. Northern Pacific 10000-series Double Sheathed Boxcars
5. SSW Double Sheathed Boxcars
6. SP Single Sheathed Boxcars
7. CNW Single Sheathed Boxcars
8. CN Single Sheathed Boxcars
9. CP "Minibox" Boxcars
10. CB&Q XM-25/26 Single Sheathed Boxcars
11. SOU SU Double Sheathed Boxcars
12. UTLX X-3 Tank Cars
13. UP B-5-17 Boxcars
14. USRA Single Sheathed Boxcars
15. PFE Reefers
16. USRA Double Sheathed Boxcars
17. IC Single Sheathed Auto Cars
18. GSX, ATSF, Rutland, NOT&M Stock Cars
19. NYC 1916 Auto Cars
20. QA&P Boxcar, Carbon Black Car, Vinegar Tank Car
21. ARA Double Sheathed Boxcars
22. "Alternate ARA" Single Sheathed Boxcars
23. 1932 ARA Boxcars
24. Wagontop and Ribside Boxcars
25. PRR R50B Reefer
26. Gondolas
27. Gondola Loads
28. PRR X31 Boxcars
29. LV "Wrong Way" Boxcar
30. ACF Reefers
31. Dominion Fowler Patent Single Sheathed Boxcars
32. Soo "Sawtooth" Single Sheathed Boxcars
33. SFRD Rebuilt USRA Reefers
34. PRR X29 Boxcars
35. B&O M-26 Boxcars
36. MKT Single Sheathed Boxcars
37. Wabash Single Sheathed Boxcars
38. Early PS-1 Boxcars
39. 50-Foot Single Sheathed Boxcars
40. Spencer Kellogg Tank Car
41. Postwar AAR Boxcars
42. UP "Alternate Center Rivet" Boxcars
43. ACF Type 11 Tank Cars

Of those, these are the cars released in plastic:

1. NP 10000-series Double Sheathed Boxcars - Rapido
2. CP "Minibox" Boxcars - True Line Trains
3. USRA Single Sheathed Boxcars - Tichy, RTR from Intermountain
4. PFE Reefers - Intermountain
5. USRA Double Sheathed Boxcars - ERTL
6. ATSF Stock Cars - Intermountain
7. 1932 ARA Boxcars - Atlas
8. Wagontop Boxcars - Exactrail, Fox Valley
9. Ribside Boxcars - Exactrail, Intermountain, Rib Side Cars (tooling now owned by Accurail)
10. Gondolas (Various) - Accurail, Tangent
11. PRR X31 Boxcars - Bowser
12. Dominion Fowler Patent Single Sheathed Boxcars - Life Like of Canada Proto 1000 (aka True Line Trains)
13. SFRD Rebuilt Reefers - Intermountain
14. PRR X29 Boxcars - Red Caboose/Intermountain
15. B&O M-26 Boxcars - Red Caboose/Intermountain
16. Early PS-1 Boxcars - Kadee
17. Postwar AAR Boxcars - Branchline, others

You can see, that less than half of the cars are available in plastic. Of those, not all are available with separately applied detail parts and are often only the most common variations of the cars. So there are lots of opportunities here.

This is one of our key starting points in determining what cars we want to offer.