Buy anything new lately?

The next grouping of acquisitions for the PENN AMERICAN RAILROAD.

Rail Car Department

(2) MTH Premier 36’ Woodside Refrigerator Car (Schmidt’s Beer) (20-94487)
Another purchase that I never indulged in but with a touch of nostalgia. I never drank Schmidt’s beer (I prefer Yuengling) but it’s the only beer my Grandfather, who introduced me to this wonderful model train hobby, would drink. Beautifully detailed cars with a logo that I saw almost everywhere, on tv, the beer distributor and in our basement fridge.

These reefers are nicely painted with separately applied details. They’re 1:48 scale cars yet at 10 3/4” long they run on O31 curve track.





(2) MTH Premier “Oscar Mayer & Co.“ 36’ Woodside Refrigerator Car (Public Delivery Track Exclusive) (20-94627 & 20-94628)
Another find while perusing hobby shop websites! And another nostalgia purchase, who doesn’t remember the Oscar Mayer commercial jingle? Same cool features as the Schmidt’s reefers above, they’ll go great with my Oscar Mayer Wienermobile on the city streets. Maybe I’ll kitbash a Menards building into a Oscar Mayer factory!







Atlas O Premier “Strasburg” Operating Side Dump Car (Nicholas Smith’s Trains Exclusive) (30099695)
Another addition to my Strasburg roster. Numbered for the Maryland and Pennsylvania (Ma & Pa) Railroad side dump car on the Strasburg Railroad property (#302), built by the Kilburn and Jacobs Company in 1914, arrived at Strasburg in 1971. These cars were utilized by the railroads in maintenance-of-way roles for rapidly building up fills and cuts with stone, rip-rap or soil as well as for depositing ballast. Side dump cars are also used in revenue service hauling ore, limestone, gravel, and coal in many different settings.

This is the first ‘dumper car’ I’ve bought since the Lionel MPC era. This version is a different animal! With its die cast frame this is a heavy car. At about 12” long it’ll operate on O31 curves. A neat feature of this car is the ‘shake’ action after dumping its material to fully empty the car. Underneath the hopper is hinged with springs that tilt it and a small electronic board that operates the dumping action by way of either Atlas O rail blades installed in Atlas O track or similar tracks from MTH and Lionel that activates sliding shoes.  It includes some metal (plastic) pipes.





Atlas O Master Line “GLNX” 33,000 Gallon Tank Car (3003006-1)
I purchased one of these in a different car number last Spring. I don’t know if it’s the same kind of tank car that I saw sitting on sidings near the old Philadelphia Energy refinery in South Philadelphia some years ago. I only remember it was blue and it was a long tanker! Probably not because these ‘whale body’ tank cars were made to carry liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) and ammonia. Oh well, it’s still cool to run with a few of these cars I have from some years ago.

It has 1:48 scale dimensions and separately applied details, at 17” long it operates on O45 curve track.





Cabin Car Department

MTH Premier Bay Window Caboose (New York Central (20-91749) & Milwaukee Road (20-91748))
Picked these up to alleviate the shortage of Cabin Cars on the PENN AMERICAN RAILROAD roster for these Heritage roads. It was interesting to learn that these cars were built because as freight cars got bigger the cupola caboose wasn’t as useful. The bay window enabled the caboose crew to see the train better. They will run on O31 curves.  The bars on the end windows is a neat touch.







Lionel “Pennsylvania” N8 Cabin Car w/ Crew Talk, Freight Sounds and Whistle (2326780)
I had not witnessed one of these talking cabooses before. This is an action packed caboose with the user activated crew talk, radio dialog and an air whistle for backup moves. It also has a Track IR sensor for use with SensorTrack to activate features. And a Pennsylvania caboose with the TrainPhone antenna was hard to say no to! I have several PRR cabin cars but I’ve been wanting to get one of these.





A little more is coming!

Post by rtraincollector on Feb 29, 2024 at 8:22am
Okay probably going about this kinda backwards or as my father use to bassackwards But I won another set of 418, 419, & 490 passenger cars last night. For $200 + shipping and Handling. I want the 6 wheel trucks off one and will put the 4 wheel trucks I have, I want the 6 wheel trucks so my orange passenger car I'm painting will have the same trucks that the rest do. the 418, 419, & 490 came with either 4 wheel or 6 wheel trucks all depends when made. ( earlier 2 years where 4 wheel. ) Actually the orange passenger cars came with 4 wheel trucks but mine have 6 wheel trucks, so just want to match them.

Keep on trucking.
Alfred

Thanks, Alfred. I’ll be doing just that when we come out for the York Meet!

Nice!

My Father was from Milwaukee. On a trip there to visit family when I was a teenager we toured all the breweries in town. I thought I was going to get the free samples at the end of the tour. Imagine my disappointment when they served me a Coke while everyone else had beer. Schlitz, Blatz and Miller were my starter beers when I came of age. 

Brian,love the bay window cabeese! Might I ask if the marker lights on the rear are functional?