Saturday, August 6, 2011, a group of modelers from KC including Mark Davidson (mark) and I attend the Railroad Prototype Modelers meet in Collinsville, IL. One of the vendors was our own Nick Molo with a new kit of the General American 50' RBL Sill 2 box car with 10' Centered Plug Doors. This kit is a first class flat kit with etched phosphor-bronze walkway and detail parts as well as custom-made plastic parts. It includes both friction-bearing as well as roller-bearing truck frames and wheels from Tangent. A modeler at the meet that had purchased one and had already begun assembly stated that it was going together easily. In the pictures below we see Nick in orange and the kit that he has available at http://molocotrains.com. The black and white photo of the actual Frisco car this model is based on is from the collection of and property of Bob's Photo, Ansonia, CT.
Re: New General American 50' Boxcar kit Love to buy one, but most everything on Nick's site says "Out of Stock" ??? Nick?
Re: New General American 50' Boxcar kit Interesting model. One thing I noticed on the page for it, it lists "railroads for this design" and it doesn't list Frisco. BTW for ease of access here is a direct link: http://www.molocotrains.com/store/freightcars/ga50rbls1-10-6offwideundeckit-1.html Ethan
Re: New General American 50' Boxcar kit I know Nick has plenty of stock - he stated so at the show. The car is most definitely one the Frisco purchased, reference Nick's Frisco/Katy Color Guide to Freight Equipment p68. I left a message for him that he needed to correct his site.
Keith and all, Thanks for the car announcement. Yes, at the show a did have plenty of cars, but by the end of the show I was running low and by SUnday with all the website sales both my cars were sold out. Don't dispair I've been busy trying to get another run together. Keith, your photo you posted is for an ACF plug door car, whereas the car I've released is a General American design. I suppose you could easily kitbash the bottom sill to make into that car. I have updated the website with SLSF(XL) as one of the roads having the Sill 2 cars, but they were XL cars. I'm going to be placing more images on the website very soon, so please check them out. http://www.molocotrains.com/store/freightcars.html Regards, Nick
All, This is a quick note to update this post. Nick Molo has updated his web site with some very nice assembly instructions for his General American 50' boxcars. These instructions include numerous step by step photographs to make the ease of assembly of the car go even better. This is a fun kit to assemble. The precision parts all fit perfectly. Better yet, there is absolutely no flash on the kit parts. This is a wonderful precision kit of a Frisco prototype. These cars are a must have for late 60's and 70's era Frisco (and other railroads) modelers. The same 50' type 2 side sill centered 10' 0" door car is also a prototype for at least five other mid western railroads (CGW (later CNW), D&RGW, GM&O, IC, Soo). Nick is also producing a similar 50' type 1 side sill car with a 10' 6" offset plug door that is prototype specific to ten other eastern, mid western and western railroads (CRIP, Conrail, D&H, EL, KCS, MILW, MP, N&W, UP and Wabash). At the St. Louis Prototype Modelers Meet these cars generated considerable interest (and purchases). A couple of modelers even started assembling the cars at the meet, even without instructions! I encourage you to purchase and build these cars to expand your fleet also. The more support we can give our Canadian friend and fellow Frisco modeler, with that endearing peculiar "southern" accent, the better. Who knows, maybe we can even get additional Frisco prototype kits from the skilled works of Moloco. Hope this helps. Thanks! Mark
Bob - Without doing much detailed study, I'd suggest you look at OddBalls #'s 87-133, 87-245, 87-247, 87-788 and Herald King B-461, B-462, and B-464. None of them are fits, but parts of several might do the trick. Hope so! Ken
Guys, Thansk to Keith and Mark for their support and announcements on the new product. I have now listed somelinks to decals manufacturers on the web pages. I also received an email from Hubert from Mask Island decals, he has told me he will be doing the Frisco version decals for this car in the very near future. He currently has the Rock Island set and a lot of the guys think they are great. I suspect his set will supercede anything that has been produced before. Nick