Greetings O Scale Modelers! Well, this spring it seems the resin garden has offered its latest fruits. A Howe Truss Boxcar. Kit # 306, $180.00 each plus shipping, feature reverse Dreadnaught ends and a Murphy radial roof. The Howe Truss Boxcar was considered an "alternate" design pattern to the standard ARA Pratt Truss design but retained many of the characteristics of the ARA cars. Road names associated with this particular design variation are; Columbus and Greenville (300 cars), Louisiana and Arkansas (300 cars), International Great Northern (300 +) and the New Orleans Texas and Mexico (120 cars), the latter two being subsidiaries of the Missouri Pacific. One could even model a Sands Spring Railway boxcar before their rebuilding. Decals available thru Protocraft. For additional reading on the prototype, I suggest Ted Culotta's series of articles, "Essential Freight Cars" #22 "Alternate" ARA Single Sheath Boxcars. Prototype images courtesy of Bob's Photos.
The kit features are a one piece body/floor combination, one piece roof, etchings, laser cut drilling and bending templates, and the typical injection molded components from San Juan, Chooch Ultra Scale, and Grandt Line.
And prototype specific door castings:
Columbus and Greenville
International Great Northern
Louisiana and Arkansas
This kit was released at the Chicago O scale event and to our surprise, we sold out of our initial small run. We have been casting up another small lot, so to those who order, it will be at least 2 weeks before we ship kits. We Thank You for your patience and continued support in our projects.
