Unsure where to post these sort of questions.. Have 3 cars... 1-Atlas 41911 USRA MOW Box Car CNJ 92161 Googled blocking car.. Nothing related... What is a "Blocking Car" shown on the gold badge? 2-Intermountain Special LI2000 1937 ARA Boxcar 40' Green CNJ 22490 The ebay seller listed this made by Intermountain. Coincidentally another ebay seller listing the same car, same label, made by Microtrains? Can anyone shed some light. Want to replace trucks or couplers. The only way to couple or decouple is to lift car. Suggestions? 3-Red 2 Bay Hopper CNJ Road Number 669 bought used without original case. Has Atlas 1994 stamped on bottom. Can’t find in Atlas archive, Trovestar? Was the entire car made by Atlas or shell swap?
#2 is an intermountain. Pretty sure because the grabs and ladders appear to be applied which is pretty much an intermountain thing. I've built several of those 37 AAR boxcars but in other roads. I cut the coupler boxes off the truck then used MT 1015s mounted to the chassis.
Blocking Car would be a car in wreck train service, carrying the wood blocking used to stabilize the wreck crane and for rerailing cars. Second car is Intermountain as said. The labeling is consistent with Intermountain practice.
This paint scheme and number don't show on Trovestar, at least not that I can find. The car's small lettering for capacity, load limit and weight furthest to the left is a bit crooked. My guess is that it's someone's project car. It looks real nice I think. In a similar vein, a friend gave me a nice CNJ boxcar that I couldn't reference and under very close examination, I could see decal film. It too is well done.
I second the above. 2 is an Intermountain car. All too often, EBay listers, especially if they don't know much about N scale, will list just about ANY N scale car as Micro Trains. It increases the visibility since most people searching EBay for N scale is usually looking for MTL. 3 is a BLW (Brooklin Loco Works) limited run of an Atlas 2 bay hopper. That's why you can't find it searching the Atlas info. Saved this for last since I'm not sure about this but usually a 'blocking car' is a MOW car that carries wood 'blocks' for a crane to stabilize the crane when lifting heavy loads.
Excellent. Thanks all.. Are there any truck mounted coupler replacement options for the Intermountain?