Blackstone Models HOn3 boxcars

An HO scale three-foot-gauge model of the Denver & Rio Grande Western Ry.’s rebuilt 3000-series boxcar is now available from Blackstone Models.

A “rebuilt” fleet. By the 1920s two decades of heavy service had taken their toll on Denver & Rio Grande Ry.’s 750 30-foot boxcars. In 1926 the renamed Denver & Rio Grande Western Ry. had the cars rebuilt from the trucks up.

The Blackstone HOn3 model’s dimensions match diagrams found in A Century + Ten of D&RGW Narrow Gauge Freight Cars, 1871 to 1981 by Robert E. Sloan.

Detailed and reliable. We reviewed both a freshly shopped and a weathered version. All lettering is crisp and matches prototype photos. The weathering is consistently applied.

The plastic models include a lot of separately applied parts. The brake piping and other underbody details are especially impressive.

The models ride on accurate archbar trucks with plastic sideframes and blackened metal wheels mounted in gauge per National Model Railroad Association standard S-4.1. The model also has Kadee no. 714 magnetic couplers mounted at the correct height per NMRA standard S-2.

The model weighs 2 ounces, which is .3 ounces too light per NMRA RP-20.1.

The side doors on the cars slide open to reveal a tan interior floor with molded wood plank detail.The cars also include a packet of modeler-applied placards lettered for various lading, such as “silica Sand ldg. only.”

Available in multiple road numbers, these boxcars make it easier than ever to model the Rio Grande in HOn3.

Blackstone HOn3 boxcars
Price: $36.95, $41.95 (weathered)

Manufacturer
Blackstone Models
A division of SoundTraxx
210 Rock Point Drive
Durango, CO 81301
www.blackstonemodels.com

Description: plastic ready-to-run freight car

Paint schemes: (multiple road numbers available) “flying Rio Grande” lettering or Moffat Tunnel herald