SFLC Box cars (wanna beer?)

[Santa Fe Sammy]

Howdy folks,

Here are some pics of the most numerous box car on my layout, the Evans Plugdoor Box car.
These were / are used for a variety of freight but they also have a very large pool of them to move Budweiser beer out of St Louis to the various distribution centers around the country.
Atlas gives us a great starting point with these cars and with a little weathering and grafitti cover patchwork, they can be turned into a good looking car.

I’ve modeled my cars from pics taken of the prototype.


A few roster shots of the models:




Here’s a pic of the destination on my layout: a scratch built version of a small Bud distribution center. I based this off a prototype in Tulsa, OK.


Finishing up with a family photo.

[riss2509]

Hey Sammy,, been trying to justify getting some of these, how early was these cars running? Would look good with a few running behind some BN power! ;D

[gabby]

Sammy you have done some fine work there on those wagons

[tankcarsrule]

Sammy, it's all good. Outstanding weathering!

Bobby

[m a y o r 79]

Wow those look awsome! Makes me want to do a few. The patching and weathering are outstanding.

[mrlfan]

I'll second what Riss2509 says. BN green and black makes life better all around.

Glenn

[atsf90]

Those look great, very nice weathering. I like that scene at the Bud distribution center. You picked the perfect locos for the switching, nothing better than a Warbonnet.

[Santa Fe Sammy]

Thanks much to everyone for the kind comments.

riss2509 - I'm not exactly sure when the ATSF started getting these cars. I'm pretty sure most of them, if not all of them are second hand USLX cars.

I first started seeing the cars around the mid 90's. In 1997, my wife and I rode the Santa Fe Southern mixed train and on our return to Santa Fe, the train dropped 2 of the cars off at the Bud distributor in Santa Fe. I asked the crew and they said that beer had been arriving in those plug door boxcars for several years so I figure I'm safe for using the cars on my 1995 layout.

Oh, isn't it funny how a dirty brown boxcar looks really good next to green motive power? ;D