Intermountain

Intermountain 47901-24, car # 60463

Intermountain has released flat side models of the SK-Q thorugh SK-U stock cars beginning in 2004. The prototype was built by the Pennsylvania Car Co. 1928-30. Because they are similar, most of the same tooling can be used for all of these cars. Double deck side tooling was not produced, so the double deck cars are not accurate. The flat sides allow for relief on the inside of the slats. Both K and AB brakes are available. All grabs and piping is done in wire.

Intermountain notes, "We are offering these as "stand in" models for the CB&Q and MoPac, both of them had cars that had the same basic "look."'

Basic time frames for ATSF paint are:

In 1934 the AAR adopted AB brakes as the new standard. In the 1940s many cars with K brakes were converted to AB brakes or destined for scrap. After July 1, 1953, cars with K brakes could no longer be interchanged with other railroads. When cars were upgraded to AB brakes, many maintained their vertical staff brake wheels. Many cars retained the vertical staff brakes after conversion.

Roofwalks began to disappear in the late 60s. No new cars were built with roofwalks after 1967.

Based on this info and looking at the models illustrated on the Intermountain website:

Simple improvements to the assembled cars include:

• Paint the trucks and coupler pockets mineral brown.
• Lower the coupler pockets (see below).
• Add end lower grab irons on the bottom sill of each end. As built, looking at the car the right one is straight and the left one is a drop grab to avoid the topside uncoupler bar. Photos of the SK-U in 1936 shows them both as straight out grabs with uncoupler under the coupler.
• Add uncoupling bars under the coupler.
• Add brake hoses.

1) All cars were built by the Pennsylvania Car Company

2) Many of these cars lasted till the late '60s or early '70s

3) All cars were painted Mineral Brown which includes sides, ends, roofs, doors, undercarriages and trucks. The exception is the doors on the double deck cars which are painted reefer orange for easy identification.

4) Lettering was all white. The sides carried only the reporting marks and the car number. Contrary to several model manufacturers, the name Santa Fe and the emblem never appeared on the stock cars. Dimensional data and car class were carried on the sill and reporting marks and road number were carried on the drovers door on the ends of the car.

5) The double deck cars were convertible to single deck cars by means of a winching mechanism on the side of the car which would lift the upper deck up to the inside of the roof to get it out of the way if the car was to be used to carry horses or cattle.

6) Some of the Sk-Rs received a steel door for small animals like sheep or maybe hogs. This door was located at the floor midway between the regular door and the end of the car, on one end only. Pecos River Brass offered this car.

7) These cars are all low cars and will be similar in height to the old Varney or Trains Miniature cars as opposed to the higher cars that are represented by Athearn and AHM.

Andy Sperandeo writes: "InterMountain has two floor/end castings. The one packed with the K-brake kits lacks the toe holes in the ends, but the one in the AB-brake kits has them. Trouble is, these end details have absolutely nothing to do with the type of brake system under the car. They were all built with K brakes, and all those remaining in service by 1953 ended up with AB brakes. You can buy spare InterMountain parts for $ .75 per sprue, and the floor/end piece counts as one sprue. I just bought a few extra floor/end parts with toe holes and a like number of K brake sprues to give myself more options for modeling the different single-deck classes. The end ladders should really be free-standing, with angle-stock stiles mounted on standoffs. To do that, though, you'd have to scrape off the stile molded onto the car end."

Photos of the SK-R show it without toe holes. SK-T and SK-U both have toe holes. SK-S had the lower toe hole and a grab where the upper toe hold was on other cars.

The SK-R cars had staff brake wheel while the SK-T cars had the Ajax power brake wheel. Both however started out with K brakes and ended up with AB brakes. One should not relate K brakes to staff control and AB brakes to Ajax control.

Another discrepancy has to do with the grab on the lower right hand side of the ends. Photos in Ellington show that as a short grab mounted to a plate in the wood end, not stretching all the way across to the cross member. There is a photo of and SK-U car which has the long grab as the model. Photos of SK-Rs show it with both styles.

The assembled kits come with smaller scale Kadee #58 couplers. Some owners have reported the coupler being slightly high requiring the coupler pocket to be shimmed down from the car .10 - .30". Others feel the car is a little high and needs to be lowered. Some of this can be blamed on inconsistent contruction of the bolsters by foreign labor. If you remove the coupler, watch out for flying springs!

Ted Culotta reports that "the Accurail "Bettendorf" is the best available truck for the IM ATSF stock cars."

The authorative book is the out of print Stock Cars of the Santa Fe Railway by Frank M. Ellington, John Berry, and Loren Martens. A review by Richard Hendrickson of the IM cars along with photos appeared in The Warbonnet, 1st Quarter, 2005 and again in the 2nd Quarter, 2005.