Review

Model Die Casting has released this new line of eight cars in their ready-to-run series. Designed to represent the 1937 AAR boxcar design, these cars also represent the "billboard" concept of freight car decoration as a way of attracting new business. The roadnames chosen are: Bangor & Aroostook "State of Maine Products" red, white, and blue; Rutland yellow over green; Reading green bidirectional arrow; Baltimore and Ohio "Time-Saver" blue with yellow dart; Monon "Hoosier Line" boxcar red; Elgin, Joliet & Eastern orange and green; Denver & Rio Grande Western gold and silver single stripe; and Great Northern's orange and drab.

The Prototypes

Few of us completely appreciate what the letters AAR mean to us. For well over a century, the Association of American Railroads has worked to provide standards within an industry which started with none. Virtually every safety device or railroading practice had AAR as a midwife at its birth. In some ways, practically every freight car is an AAR car, but that distinction has been restricted to a class of cars developed beginning in the late 1920s, introduced onto the rails just before the war years, and continuing in production into the sixties. The best known products of this design work were from a plan produced in the dark days of the Great Depression.

That plan had roots going back to the Railway Safety Appliance Act of 1893 which mandated - among other things - Westinghouse air brakes, Janney knuckle couplers, and steel underframes. As cars came on line with these features, railroads could build much longer trains.

But above the steel frame, much of the cars remained wood. It was relatively cheap and common and could be worked with minimal tools. In fact, most of the cars built into the twenties featured truss rod frames. With the advent of the United States Railroad Administration in December of 1917, new standards in freight cars began to appear, especially steel fishbelly frames which did away with truss rods. Corrugated steel ends showed up around this time as well. Sides and roofs continued to' be constructed with wood, however.

While not all of its member railroads advocated all-steel cars, AAR took the lead in this department and began to develop steel roofing and sides that wouldn't leak or rust. Though all of the elements of the AAR design were in use, the actual plans weren't released until 1937. During the war years, changes were incorporated in this design until they looked rather like PS- Is, the next design generation from AAR. Thousands of 40-foot long 1937 AAR-design boxcars were constructed, whole fleets going to almost every railroad in North America. While the majority were built with six-foot doors, as many were delivered with more specialized door arrangements. This vast population of 1937 AAR boxcars carried a lion's share of the boxcar freight during World War II.

The Models

MDC Roundhouse has chosen a wonderful car to model and picked a coast-to-coast collection of roadnames. The patriotically-painted Bangor & Aroostook "State of Maine" car joins a Rutland boxcar to represent New England. A B&O "Timesaver" works with the Reading car for the mid-Atlantic region. In the midwest, we get an Elgin, Joliet & Eastern plus a Motion "Hoosier Line." Out west, we find a lovely Rio Grande (I'm prejudiced) and an orange and green Great Northern.

Paint schemes are authentic, if not always for the 1937 AAR. What is important is the quality of the models. I took up the dial caliper and an assortment of magnifiers for a really close look. Doors are molded on, a trend in ready-to-run cars. Except for those occasions when one wishes to model a car with the door open and workers loading or unloading it, there is little reason to endure the added expense and periodic problems of opening doors.

The strength of these cars lies in the paint and lettering. There is a richness in the paint application which combines with the crispness of lettering to remind me that cars under $20 can look really good. Everyone I showed them to took a very close look and came to the same conclusion without prompting. The complication of producing the very welcome Bangor & Aroostook "State of Maine" livery undoubtedly claims the slightly higher MSRP of this version. The basic car shell is molded in white with the other colors applied; unfortunately, the bottom edge of the shell remains undecorated, a situation the average modeler could cure in a couple of minutes.

Rivet details and door types are consistent with the prototype. The roofwalk is the common wooden variety, while the brake wheel appears to be an Ajax, though the gear box behind it is smaller, somewhat like a Universal. Underbelly detail is there but simplistically formed. In some cases, such as the Rio Grande, the number of side panels does not match the prototype. These are not cars for the Smithsonian; they are for livening up living layouts.

Operation

The cars come with horn-hook couplers, once the standard of the HO world. Today, magnetic knuckle couplers are most common, and so I took all eight cars out to visit Sam Clarke, the coupler conversion specialist at nearby Kadee Quality Products. In this case, they all would take a straight Number 5, a very quick drop-in solution. Sam offered to put on their smaller, protoscale #58, and I agreed, since they'd work with my #5-connected layout. He told me that MDC communicates with Kadee which results in coupler pockets that are the right height.

Your decision to change couplers will be driven by compatibility with the rest of the rolling stock you have. As Sam and I proved, changing couplers is not a difficult thing to do. All you need is a small, flat-blade screwdriver and good light. You'll probably want to remove the trucks to get them out of the way. After you've done a few, it will all come a easier and faster. Most of us in model railroading come to grips with coupler changes, repairs, and adjustments sooner or later. These cars might be just the excuse to jump in.

The trucks are Bettendorf friction bearing models. The wheels are plastic an the axles are non-magnetic metal. Sam offered to convert the wheelsets to their #520 metal 33 inch wheels, and I agreed. I have learned - the hard way - that metal wheels are generally superior in a number of ways to plastic. They tend to roll better, stay cleaner, and they don't offset plastic onto the rails. If you are using any sort of solvent track cleaner (and it's hard to keep your tracks clean without such a solution), the cleaner will also tend to attack the plastic of the wheels, adding to the problem. Running all metal wheels will tend to settle this issue. Beginners don't need to worry about changing out wheel sets; metal wheels tend to become an issue when you have acquired a large fleet of cars and a larger layout or if you belong to a club which requires them.

I am a personal believer that cars should be weighted to NMRA standards In the case of 40 footers (1 ounce + 1/2 ounce per inch of car length) the car should weigh around 4 ounces. These cars weigh an ounce shy of that number. A judgment factor comes into play here. If these cars are going to be part of a fairly short train (20 cars or less), they will probably be okay as they are. If you intend to run them in longer trains, especially up toward the drawbar, their lightness could lead to stringlining or other mischief.

Fortunately, adding weight is quite easy. Hold the car on its back, spread the doorsills a bit and pull upward on a truck; the floor assembly will simply pop out. Measure out about an ounce of weight (you can get fishing and wheel weights of that amount), put a sensible glob of clear silicone sealer dead center on the existing weight and press the new one into it. Let this assembly cure until you can tilt the car sideways without the weight shifting, reassemble, and that's it!

I tried rolling all eight of them before changing out couplers and wheels; they ran just fine, though I didn't have a locomotive to pull them since everything I own has magnetic knuckle couplers. After the conversions, I ran them again and noticed some improvement due to the metal wheels. All eight behaved very nicely in-train.

Summary

While these cars have molded-on ladders and grabs, plus doors that don't slide open, once that train is rolling, you can't tell which cars have doors that open and which don't. You are hardpressed to determine which cars have molded ladders and handgrabs versus the separately-applied ones. In the midst of the string of brown cars are these "billboards" that railroading put up over a half century ago. All eight cars are real eye-catchers, the splash of color you may have been wanting.