Greenville Steel Car Company 86’ High Cube Double Plug Door Box Cars

Tangent Scale Models April 2023 release replicates a distinctive group of Greenville cars: the 1970 Brownstown, Michigan Ford Parts Pool. The Ford Brownstown Parts Redistribution Center came online in 1970 and supplied the Ford Parts Depot Network around the United States. Parts Depot destinations for these cars included cities like Seattle, WA, Denver, CO, New Orleans, LA, Jacksonville, FL and more. It is important to note that these cars are pooled – so that means any of the BRO cars can be loaded for any BRO pool location! This means that mixing and matching these BRO cars would be accurate to prototype practices.

Visually, these 1970 cars are different from any other Greenville car, with extra vertical rivets rows on the sides of the cars at each end. These rivets attach to the prototype’s interior posts for the DF2 belt rails, allowing palletized parts to be loaded on the DF2 interior crossbars. Eleven of the railroads participating in the Ford BRO Pool used cars supplied by Greenville Steel Car Company. With the extra riveted interior posts, the inset end panels on each March 1970-built Greenville side are more narrow. No other Greenville 86’ box car lot looks like this!

Burlington Northern (BN) “Delivery 1970” replicates the only 86’ Greenville box cars delivered new to Burlington Northern Railroad. Built in March of 1970, these big Auto Parts cars feature the early version of BN’s graphics – notice the bold “BURLINGTON NORTHERN” on the left side, similar to the premerger CB&Q green scheme. These cars feature a 1970 Greenville body, with narrow end inset panels and an EOCC Underframe with correct Freightmaster cushioning. The car rides on accurate 100-Ton “Low profile” Barber S-2-A trucks, 36” CNC machined wheels with front and back profile along with a tapered axle and “Timken” rotating caps. The BN scheme features an accurate return route stencil to Penn Central in Brownstown, Michigan, home to the Ford Parts Redistribution Center. Here is a fun fact: The BN’s 12 cars in this group were ordered by CB&Q (5 cars) and GN (7 cars). As a result, the prototype cars have CB&Q or GN-specific trust data in the upper right-hand corner of the car sides. Yes, the Tangent models carefully replicate this lettering. Tangent Scale Models BN models are available in six numbers. SKUs -01, -02, -03 feature CB&Q trust into and SKUs -04, -05, -06 feature GN trust data. Finally, these were the first new freight cars delivered to the then-new Burlington Northern railroad. Don’t miss these requested models!

Santa Fe (ATSF) “Quality Repaint 1992+” offers an example of ATSF cars that were repainted in the railroad’s “Quality” scheme in 1992. These models feature accurate Freightmaster End-of-Car Cushioning details, including the centering handles mechanism under the coupler. In this era, the Santa Fe cars have the “third crank arms” on each of those big plug doors, a detail Tangent Scale Models have faithfully replicated on the model. The model is equipped with Tangent 100-Ton “Low profile” Barber S-2-A trucks, 36” wheels and “Timken” rotating caps. If you look carefully, you will notice the accurate brake beams with truck-mounted brake cylinders. This replicates the truck-mounted brake features of the prototype cars. Tangent Scale Models are offering six road numbers in this 1992 ATSF release: SKUs -01, -02, -03 have accurate February, 1992 Topeka Shops applied data, while SKUs -04, -05, -06 have a variation of Topeka data applied in August 1992, with slightly different side, end and door locations. Tangent Scale Models even changed the tack board locations to follow prototype photos. Variety is a wonderful thing for your Tangent fleet of cars. And don’t forget to check out Tangent Scale Models prototype photos on the website. Tangent Scale Models back up their Industry-leading artwork with real prototype photos!

During the 1960s, the most radical freight car designs employed the extreme height clearances offered by Plate F car designs. In 1964, no car type articulated this extreme more than the 86-foot, purpose-built “Auto Parts” boxcars. These large boxcars became fixtures on the rails all over North American mainlines, riding hot trains to deliver components vital to the productivity of auto plants. While several car builders offered 86’ auto parts boxcars, the most prolific builder of the double plug door design was Greenville Steel Car Company of Greenville, PA. More than 4,400 of these cars were acquired by most major railroads, and they were assigned to pools where multiple railroad’s cars served a specific shipper or shippers. Original utilization of these cars was for Ford, Pontiac, and Chrysler, as well as deliveries from 3rd party parts suppliers to the auto plants. Greenville’s 1964-1978 production was the longest run for this car type, with many still in service today.

Tangent Scale Models offers high-end HO models of the Greenville 86’ High Cube Double Plug Door Box Car in HO scale! This is not just a single box car model, but instead a system of 86’ High Cube Double Plug Door Box Car models.

The Tangent Greenville 86’ High Cube Double Plug Door Box Car system is a state of the art, dimensionally-accurate scale replica that was tooled to Greenville Steel Car plans and verified with field measurements. This model comes with highly accurate “true-to-life” colors and “hyper-accurate” lettering including exact stenciling, fonts, and lettering placement. Tangent Scale Models Greenville 86’ system of models offers a multitude of detail variations and phases to replicate the many different Greenville Steel Car offerings. A quick synopsis of Tangent Scale Models era and railroad-specific detail variations include:

• Body shells with or without overlapping side panels

• EOCC (end of car cushioning) or COCC (center of car cushioning) “near scale” draft gear variations with genuine Kadee® scale couplers

• Separate flexible rubber air hoses

• Roofs with running board supports remaining in place (1965+ appearance since the running boards were gone by 1966) and roofs without running board supports (1965+ Greenville production)

• Under car brake system variations

• “See through” etched metal end crossover platforms in three possible options: Gypsum, Apex, or Morton

• Side tack board types/sizes and locations

• Twelve prototypically-accurate brake stands (Ajax, 2 Universal versions, 2 Equipco versions, 2 Miner versions, Champion-Peacock, 2 Elcon-National versions, Peacock 850, Klasing 1150)

• Two possible handbrake “brake wheel” options

• Optional 3rd door crank arm parts to be configured one of three ways

• Multiple truck options: 70-Ton Barber S-2A Roller Bearing Truck, 70-Ton Barber S-2 “Birdsboro foundry” Roller Bearing Truck or a 100-Ton “Low Profile” Barber S-2-C Roller Bearing Truck

• 33” or 36” wheels, as applicable, with front and back detail and accurate tapered axles

• Two truck brake beam part options

• Three “rotating” roller bearing truck cap options

• Recommended age 14 years and older

Order Due Date: Available Now

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