I have what I think is an Athearn 50' exterior post boxcar (I bought it without a box). It is oxide red and numbered 57869. "Norfolk and Western" is spelled out in a sans-serif font and there is no herald. There is no readable date on the data on the car. I'm curious about what date this scheme came into use. An aside question is what would the prototype build date be for this model?
If I wasn't in the process of moving and hadn't already packed up my copy of the 1980 Official Equipment Registry, I'd take a look.
In the April 1956 Equipment Register, N&W series 56500 to 59999 were 32' 4" hopper cars. In Oct 1961, The highest numbered box car was #57464 and no car had #57869. I then jump to April 1977 when N&W had 490 50' 6" box cars in series 57500 to 57999. They are listed as AAR Mech Desg XF, described as "Box, stl, Standard Draft Gears, Single Sliding Doors Centered, Nailable Stl. Flr., Lading Strap Anchors in Door Posts, 50K, Axles Spac. 5' 8", Truck Ctrs. 40' 11", (Processed Food Products)". Sorry I can't get you closer to the date N&W acquired it. However, there's a good picture of 3 cars in this series at
"Geezer" tickled the keyboard:
Thanks for the info. This get's me closer. The photo shows the car I'm pretty sure the model is intended to represent though there are a few detail inaccuracies given close scrutiny. Unfortunately I couldn't read the data though it looked like it might have been repainted 1-85.
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