Model Train Journal

These Mullet River kits build up quite nicely. Unfortunately, they are no longer available.

Charlie

CMorrill wrote:These Mullet River kits build up quite nicely. Unfortunately, they are no longer available.

Yes & yes.

Thanks for posting the photo, too,

Looks real. Not plastic. Too bad they stopped, but they were pricey for a kit.

True. They were not mass produced plastic. But, they are kind of fun to build if one were into that sort of thing.

Charlie

Very nice looking boxcar, Charlie. I admire the Muller River kits and had a hankering for their Milwaukee Road caboose, but I have a terrible track record for even starting kits, much less finishing them.

I do however have an NP boxcar of unknown origin:



Bob Turner was kind enough to send me home with this car after he caught me admiring it (The same admiration did not send me home with one of his scratchbuilt cab-forwards). The sides appear to be pre-printed. The underside is simple and, judging from the wheel tread width, the trucks -- and perhaps the car itself -- appear to be old:



The roof does not have the same graceful and distinguishing curved profile that Charlie's car has, but overall I still think it's pretty spiffy. Anybody have any clue as to the manufacturer?

Jim

Jim,
My guess is that is a Zimmer kit with the nice preprinted sides. Probably for simplicity of construction, the builder left off some of the details that would have been included in a Zimmer kit like the end lumber doors, roof ribs, and truss rods under the side sills.

Charlie

Finding the same error in the lettering on this Zimmer reefer kit, removes any doubt to me that your box car sides at least are from a Zimmer.

Charlie

Zimmer did a lot of NP cars. Quite a few oddball prototypes such as the one with truss rods and a fish belly frame. Two truss rods.

My first thought was, not a Zimmer because the ends fit so poorly but then I got to thinking, maybe the builder just struggled with them and that's the best they could do.

Jay

I have quite a few of his kits. I'll see if I have one of the box cars. It night prove to be interesting to compare sides.

Jay

Good input. It got me digging in my All Nation catalogs for Zimmer listings. Here is Charlie's reefer:

CMorrill wrote:Finding the same error in the lettering on this Zimmer reefer kit

Error in the lettering? I am missing something here.

Jay Criswell wrote:Zimmer did a lot of NP cars. Quite a few oddball prototypes such as the one with truss rods and a fish belly frame. Two truss rods.

Good memory, Jay. This is indeed one of those cars. Note that the road number matches one of the two offered:


The text even mentions the center sill and one truss rod on each side.

CMorrill wrote:...the builder left off some of the details that would have been included in a Zimmer kit like the end lumber doors, roof ribs, and truss rods under the side sills.

Close inspection of the bottom shot in my first post above shows holes where the truss rods should be, indicating that they flew south at some point. I am not much of a truss rod kinda guy, but I wouldn't be surprised if I have appropriate posts hiding around here somewhere.

Thanks again Charlie and Jay!
Jim

Jim,

I've always wondered about Zimmer. The kits were marketed, and sold, by A-N but were usually a little more detailed and, usually, kind of oddball stuff. These would be things like the AT&SF panel side box cars (40' & 50'), extended roof box car, the Watermelon car, etc. What do you know about Zimmer himself?

Jay

Jay Criswell wrote:Jim,

I've always wondered about Zimmer. The kits were marketed, and sold, by A-N but were usually a little more detailed and, usually, kind of oddball stuff. These would be things like the AT&SF panel side box cars (40' & 50'), extended roof box car, the Watermelon car, etc. What do you know about Zimmer himself?

Jay

Good question!

Zimmer was also behind the A-N traction freight car kits (6-8?) and also a PRR Dairy reefer car kit.

It is not real obvious. In all the years since I built this car, I had not noticed the miss shaped Yin Yang till I posted the photo.

Charlie

Jay Criswell wrote: What do you know about Zimmer himself?

Well, not a darn thing. I will do a search of the Model Railroad digital archive and see if anything turns up.

Nice catch on the herald, Charlie. I never would have noticed.

Jim

I'd like to know more about the Zimmer kit history myself. I only have a few of those kits, but I thought of them to be a little bit above the norm for that time.

One more Mullet River built up kit photo for Rufus attached.

Charlie