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N 86' Auto Parts Boxcar Features
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Products bearing Union Pacific, KATY, and Cotton Belt marks are made under trademark license from Union Pacific Railroad Company.
 
Cornfields

Bluford Shops is bringing back our popular 86’ Double Door Auto Parts Boxcars. These will include our recently improved draft gear, magnetically operating couplers and metal wheels. The minimum radius is 11”. They also include separate wire grab irons and etched metal platforms on the ends. The draft gear is mounted to the body but has a spring centered swing action that both resists string-lining the train pulling through curves and resists the trucks climbing the rail during shoving moves.

 

These super-size boxcars were originally built to carry high-value low-density automobile parts such as body panels and window glass to final assembly plants. Cars were acquired in wide ranging pools including several plants and the railroads that connected them. It was common for cars to run for months or years without traveling on their home road’s rails.

 

Pre-Orders will remain open at least through mid-August with release planned sometime in the summer of 2026. MSRP: $39.95 each. Retailers take note, this is a short-discount item. Please contact our distributors Heartland Hobby Wholesale or Walthers for details.

New N Scale 86' Boxcars. Pre-Orders are now open!

When traffic patterns were adjusted, some of the Ann Arbor cars were leased to Soo Line. The reporting marks were changed from AA to SOO LINE and a “1” prefix was added to the road number but otherwise the Ann Arbor paint scheme remained intact.

86715 Ann Arbor leased to SOO #SOO LINE 169001       $39.95

86717 Ann Arbor leased to SOO #SOO LINE 169004      $39.95

Ann Arbor ran from Toledo to Ann Arbor then on to the car ferry slips at Frankfort, Michigan thus providing a shortcut for freight moving from the Industrial Midwest to the Northern Plains, avoiding congestion in Chicago. In 1963, control of the AA passed from Wabash to Detroit Toledo & Ironton. It was at this time that AA adopted their compass logo, orange paint and distinctive billboard lettering.

86710   Ann Arbor compass #AA 69012                         $39.95

86711   Ann Arbor compass #AA 69006                         $39.95

Burlington Northern acquired this group of auto parts boxcars in their merger with Frisco joining similar cars originally acquired by Burlington Route. BN had the longest reach of any U.S. railroad during this period, going from Vancouver B.C. to the Florida Panhandle.

86720  Burlington Northern #BN 395090 $39.95

86721   Burlington Northern #BN 395081 $39.95

86725   Burlington Northern #BN 395089 $39.95

 

Not surprisingly perhaps, Conrail had the largest fleet of auto parts boxcars and this group of relatively early repaints featured the largest Conrail logo used on any equipment on the system. The placement of the CONRAIL name and the arrangement of the road number and data varied from car to car and this practice is replicated on the 3 road numbers presented here.

86730   Conrail super-logo #CR 237845  $39.95

86731   Conrail super-logo #CR 237972  $39.95

86735   Conrail super-logo #CR 238234 $39.95

We now skip ahead a quarter of a century. Conrail adopted a more practical logo size and launched their Conrail Quality program. Then in 1999, Conrail was split between Norfolk Southern and CSX. Cars going to CSX had their reporting marks changed to NYC while NS bound cars kept their CR reporting marks. Then in 2005, yellow reflector stripes began to appear on rolling stock. It is during this period that we depict this group of cars.

86740   Conrail Quality w/yellow stripes #CR 237939      $39.95

86741   Conrail Quality w/yellow stripes #CR 237960       $39.95

86745   Conrail Quality w/yellow stripes #CR 237967       $39.95

86747   Conrail Quality w/yellow stripes #CR 237998       $39.95

 

This group of flashy cars was delivered to Cotton Belt by Pullman Standard in 1967. Cotton Belt’s parent Southern Pacific made sure they got top billing in this paint scheme. In keeping with the pooling nature of the auto parts car fleet, this group was initially assigned for loading on the New York Central in Buffalo, New York.

86750   Cotton Belt as delivered #SSW 65063   $39.95

86751   Cotton Belt as delivered #SSW 65051    $39.95

86755   Cotton Belt as delivered #SSW 65045    $39.95

86757   Cotton Belt as delivered #SSW 65070    $39.95

 

 

 

Detroit Toledo & Ironton color coded their freight cars that were in assigned service. 86’ boxcars could be found in Sky Blue, Cypress Green and as presented in this run, Magenta. In 1983 these cars joined the Grand Trunk Western fleet when the GTW merged the DT&I.

86760   Detroit Toledo & Ironton magenta #DTI 26895     $39.95

86761   Detroit Toledo & Ironton magenta #DTI 26892     $39.95

86765   Detroit Toledo & Ironton magenta #DTI 26886     $39.95

86767   Detroit Toledo & Ironton magenta #DTI 26899     $39.95

 

 

 

 

Erie Lackawanna had an impressive 261 car fleet of 86’ double door auto parts boxcars. This group was delivered in 1965 and initially assigned for loading on the Chicago Heights Terminal & Transfer, a subsidiary of Chicago & Eastern Illinois. For this run, we present them as they appeared after 1967 with their ACI tags.

86770   Erie Lackawanna post-'67 #EL 92052     $39.95

86771   Erie Lackawanna post-'67 #EL 92070      $39.95

86775   Erie Lackawanna post-'67 #EL 92094      $39.95

 

 

 

 The 7,100 mile Illinois Central Gulf system was well placed to handle lucrative auto parts traffic between the Upper Midwest and the Sun Belt resulting in ICG’s colorful contributions to their operating pools. The capacity of these cars varied by assignment from a paltry 68,000 pounds to this group of 149,000 pound capacity cars.

86780   Illinois Central Gulf orange #ICG 680108 $39.95

86781  Illinois Central Gulf orange #ICG 680131 $39.95

86785   Illinois Central Gulf orange #ICG 680124 $39.95

 

 

 

 

 

Missouri-Kansas-Texas took delivery of this group of cars in 1965 during the railroad’s troubled Deramus era. They were initially assigned for loading at a Ford plant on the Wabash in Buffalo, New York.

86790   Missouri-Kansas-Texas Deramus Red #MKT 8504          $39.95

86791   Missouri-Kansas-Texas Deramus Red #MKT 8500           $39.95

86795  Missouri-Kansas-Texas Deramus Red #MKT 8502           $39.95

 

 

 

 

 

 

Santa Fe received this group from Pullman Standard in 1967. They were initially assigned for loading at a Ford stamping plant on the New York Central at Monroe, Michigan. Many years later, Santa Fe would grow to regret the “AUTO PARTS” lettering for security reasons and began to patch them out.

86820   Santa Fe AUTO PARTS #ATSF 36716     $39.95

86821   Santa Fe AUTO PARTS #ATSF 36711     $39.95

86825   Santa Fe AUTO PARTS #ATSF 36713    $39.95

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

New York Central’s fleet of 86’ boxcars was gargantuan in every measure. This group of 70-ton capacity cars was delivered in the summer of ’67. These had smaller logos than earlier deliveries. They could be found in original paint through the early Conrail years.

86800  New York Central - version 2 #NYC 67672           $39.95

86801   New York Central - version 2 #NYC 67649           $39.95

86805   New York Central - version 2 #NYC 67683           $39.95

86807   New York Central - version 2 #NYC 67656           $39.95

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pennsylvania Railroad took delivery of 150 70-ton cars in 1964. The black ends add an extra touch of class but were actually the result of a clerical error. The ends were supposed to be the same red as the sides. PRR accepted them anyway and subsequent orders came with red ends.

86810   Pennsylvania black ends #PRR 110324  $39.95

86811   Pennsylvania black ends #PRR 110178 $39.95

86815   Pennsylvania black ends #PRR 110246  $39.95

86817   Pennsylvania black ends #PRR 110219 $39.95

 

 

 

 

 

 

In 1980 under the Clayton administration, Southern Railway adopted a thinner profile lettering on freight cars and cabooses. Although it spread quickly, the transition was far from complete before this paint scheme was also replaced by the new Norfolk Southen image. Nonetheless, cars in this scheme remain in service today.

86830   Southern Railway - Claytor scheme #SOU 42427 $39.95

86831  Southern Railway - Claytor scheme #SOU 42460 $39.95

86835   Southern Railway - Claytor scheme #SOU 42488 $39.95

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Following the 1982 acquisition of Western Pacific by Union Pacific, much of the WP freight car fleet retained their original road numbers and WP reporting marks even as the cars were repainted. It was an easy way to avoid conflicting road number series and it also elimenated the need to amend equipment trusts. In the case of these auto parts cars, it avoided any confusion as to what cars belonged to what pools.

86840   Union Pacific (WP) #WP 86076  $39.95

86841   Union Pacific (WP) #WP 86068 $39.95

86845   Union Pacific (WP) #WP 86074  $39.95

86847   Union Pacific (WP) #WP 86057  $39.95

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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