A long-awaited arrival for Rapido is the 1937 AAR box cars in HO scale. I was impressed with the original announcement, because they intended to supply a range of roofs and ends to match specific prototypes. More on the models in a moment.
This landmark car design, in all its many variations, cannot be better presented than in Patrick C. Wider’s monumental 384-page opus, Railway Prototype Cyclopedia, Volume 35 (Silverlake Images, 2020). He presents all the railroad ownerships of some 94,000 AAR 1937-design cars manufactured, with very complete presentation of many specialties and distinctive design aspects of these cars.
Canadian railroads happen to have been major purchasers of these cars, more than 28,000 of the total. They were led by Canadian National, who received 18,315 cars between May 1937 and July 1945.
The car shown below (Library and Archives Canada photo) was part of 1350 cars built by National Steel Car in 1944 (CNR 484165–485514). You may note the eight-rung ladder with integral sill step. The white “Serves All Canada” emblem shown was first applied in 1943.
Canadian Pacific was second only to CNR in its purchases of the 1937-design box cars, receiving 9947 cars between June 1937 and November 1946. The car shown below (Library and Archives Canada photo) was one of 1700 cars built by Canadian Car and Foundry in 1937 (CPR 226000–227699). It has seven-rung integral-sill-step ladders. At the time of their construction, CPR was not applying emblems, as you see here.
The CPR car had a flat panel roof, unlike the familiar style of roof with raised rectangular sections in each roof panel. Below is a photo of such a roof (actually for a later CNR car, with steel running board).
I have to confess I chose the individual cars that I did because of the paint schemes, neither of which I already owned. I photographed the models as they arrived from Rapido. They will receive coats of flat finish, be weathered, and receive fresh reweigh and repack stencils, route cards and chalk marks. Here is the CNR car:
And here is the CPR model, with its distinctive flat-panel roof. It depicts a repainted car, because it has the “Spans the World” logo, first applied in 1947, well after the car was built. Like the CNR car above, it has the correct ladders.
I look forward to getting these weathered and otherwise ready for service on the layout.
Tony Thompson