#19     1998

Rd. Nos. 1800     1807     1808      MOW#  66251

Finally for 1998, a four-car set of tank cars representing the GM&O’s 19,000 gallon ACF cars were produced. The Athearn model used is not quite correct on a number of measurements, but there is no other kit on the market close to the GM&O tankers, even to this day.  Once again, the graphics came from ECM, courtesy of Joe Legner and Dave Wagner.

#20  1999

Rd. Nos. 22420 22421 22422

At the 1998 Spring BOD Meeting in Union City, TN, GM&OHS Director Jim Blanchard brought a box of material for the Society archives.  Among the various goodies was a paint diagram from the late 1940’s for a boxcar with wonderful graphics that never materialized in the real world.  The Modeling Committee decided to do the only “What If?” project to date from this original GM&O drawing.

#21 2000

Rd. Nos. 80029 80048 80073

Ken Donnelly took his first crack at a Society modeling project by choosing the Bowser 70-ton covered hopper for a three-car set.  The cars were lettered in the “billboard” scheme which was applied to many of these cars in the 1960’s.  The model is very faithful to the GM&O prototype, and the paint and graphics were right-on thanks to Double R Graphics and Vickey Graphics, respectively.

#22      2001

Rd. Nos. 4009     4026     4108     4217     4395     4710

The year 2001 saw one of the GM&O’s most iconic freight cars come to HO modeling with the release by Atlas of their 40’ GSC pulpwood flatcar.  The car itself was perfect, with good wheels and weight, and Atlas did us a favor by releasing one of their two GM&O cars in the wrong color, and by not offering any models painted in the ubiquitous oxide red scheme the railroad used.  Correcting these oversights, the Society sold all 300 of its cars in two weeks!

#23     2001

Rd. Nos. 15000 15003 15007

Car #23 also sold out in two weeks, despite the model used was not as perfectly suited to the GM&O prototype as car #22’s.  The Details West 50’ plug-door boxcar was correct in all respects except for the absence of one locking rod on each side of the door.  Once again though, the splendid paint job and graphics made these rare NIRX cars immensely popular.  An interesting note is that two well-known companies later offered a model of this car lettered with graphics that look suspiciously like the Society produced car--repack data and all!

#24 2002

Rd. Nos. 26500 26519 26536 26542 26578

Renowned modeler and GM&OHS member, Daniel Kohlberg, took his turn producing a Society car project by using Branchline Trains’ ACF 40’ boxcar.  The model was perfect, as were the paint and graphics application.  The run sold out quickly, and are virtually impossible to find anywhere today.