Late August 2009

Bluford Shops is proud to announce our next group of N scale boxcar runs. These cars have injection molded plastic bodies, etched metal details, operating knuckle couplers, accurately appearing trucks and cushion draft gear enclosures. Projected MSRP: $24.95 for single cars, $49.90 for 2-packs. These runs are scheduled for release in January of 2010. Yes, the road numbers are different between the single and the 2-packs.

86261 Penn Central double door single car, 86262 2-pack. In addition to the huge auto parts fleet inherited from New York Central and Pennsylvania Railroads, Penn Central ordered more of these double door cars in 1969 from Pullman Standard. At this point, Penn Central had far and away the largest fleet of 86' boxcars in the country. For that matter, they had the largest freight car fleet in the country with an astounding 187,000 cars!

86281 C&O Chessie System double door single car, 86282 2-pack. Although the Chesapeake & Ohio had controlled the Baltimore & Ohio since 1962, the Chessie System name and image as we see it here did not appear until more than a decade later. Many Chessie cars kept their original unpainted aluminum doors while some shops painted them right along with the body. There was no deep meaning to the color of the doors on Chessie System. On this run, the single has silver doors while the 2-pack has one car with silver doors and one car with blue doors. Also note the logo and data placement toward the right ends are different between the two 2-pack cars.
How cool is that!?

86271 Grand Trunk Western double door single car, 86272 2-pack. GTW has always been a major player in the movement of auto parts and the 1980 purchase and later merger of the DT&I only solidified that position. That brought GTW up to 1,500 miles with a 12,000 car fleet. In the wake of the collapse of arch-competitor Penn Central, GTW began billing itself as "the Good Track road" in a not-so-subtle dig at their deteriorating neighbor. The single in this run has blue doors, as does one car in the 2-pack. The other car in the 2-pack has silver doors.