Price: $49.99
Manufacturer
Moloco
302-5025 Harvard Rd.
Mississauga, ON L5M 0W6 Canada
www.molocotrains.com
Road names: Conrail, Milwaukee Road (Hydra-Cushion), Missouri Pacific, Rock Island, and Wabash. Four road numbers per scheme.
Era: 1987 to late 1990s (as decorated)
Comments: Moloco has released a new run of highly detailed HO scale General American 50-foot insulated boxcars. But these aren’t just rehashes of the cars I reviewed in the March 2015 issue. The models in this run have a new sill (style 1), and the Conrail and Rock Island boxcars feature firsts for Moloco: Third arms on the plug door as well as running board brackets with no running boards to depict modernized cars.
The ready-to-run insulated boxcar has an injection-molded plastic body with a separately applied roof, factory-installed plastic and metal detail parts, and Barber S-2 70-ton trucks. A metal weight is secured to the floor from the inside. The underbody features many freestanding parts, including brake appliances, levers, and hangers.
Our sample is decorated as Conrail no. 364319, a class BE55B insulated boxcar. The prototype was originally built for Erie Lackawanna in the mid-1960s before going to Conrail when it started operations in 1976. The model’s dimensions closely match data from other cars in the BE55B class published in the July 1985 Official Railway Equipment Register.
The paint and lettering match prototype photos of similar cars from the same class. Like the full-size modernized cars, the model has seven-rung ladders on the side and end closest to the high-mounted brakewheel. All other side and end ladders have four rungs.
The boxcar weighs 4.2 ounces, which is .3 ounce too light per National Model Railroad Association Recommended Practice 20.1. The 33″ metal wheelsets were correctly gauged. The scale couplers were mounted at the correct height, but the trip pins were low. This was an easy fix with a pair of Kadee trip pin pliers.
I ran the boxcar in a train on our HO scale Wisconsin & Southern project layout. The car operated without incident while being pushed and pulled through the no. 5 turnouts.
Moloco is known for producing well-detailed ready-to-run freight cars, and the latest run of General American 50-foot insulated boxcars doesn’t disappoint.
