More on crates as open-top car loads

I have posted several times about using both commercial and scratch-built crates as open-top car loads, which have the virtue of being easily handled and not delicate. This series of posts began back in 2012, near the beginning of this blog, with this post: https://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2012/03/open-car-loads-crates-and-machinery.html .

Years later, I added a couple of posts about crates I built myself, and included the kinds of shipper graphics I put onto these crates: https://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2021/05/open-car-loads-crates-part-2.html . That was Part 2. In Part 3, I showed more examples of ways to label these crates: https://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2021/06/open-car-loads-crates-part-3.html .

Most recently, I presented still another way of making one’s own crates for loads, this time using wood blocks, again with labels when completed: https://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2024/12/more-crate-and-box-loads-part-2.html . But it’s occurred to me, after browsing among prototype photos of loads, that many crates loaded to open-top cars don’t have shipper graphics on them. This of course means that they can be used in layout operation for a variety of shippers.

A familiar name among makers of commercial crate loads, at least in HO scale, is Chooch. They have long offered a series of large and small crates, apparently resin moldings and painted to be ready-to-use.  A variety of sizes and shapes have been produced, including heavily braced crates or pairs of crates. I’ve shown some of my efforts to label a few of these crates in this post: https://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2021/06/open-car-loads-crates-part-4.html . 

Shown below are two of these Chooch sets. These are often available in hobby shops, and are also stocked by Walthers and a variety of on-line hobby sellers. Note the variety of sizes, shapes, and crate bracing, among these sets. Sometimes the color is not to my liking, and usually I repaint using Tamiya “Wooden Deck Tan,” XF-78.

 

In my own case, I add some blocking to suggest how the individual crate is restrained, as in the photo below with the crate on the right.

I have also added labels to some of the crates, while reserving most to be used in a plain condition. The plain ones can serve as shipments themselves, identified as to content only by consulting the waybill, or as “accompanying” crates of spare parts or parts not installed before shipment. For an example of the latter use, here is my Euclid scraper load (described in an earlier post: https://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2016/05/vehicle-loading-on-flat-cars.html ), with such a plain crate included.

For the other case , the unlabeled crate load, such as shown below on my layout being switched by 0-6-0 SP 1284, the content of the crates on CNW flat car 42453 can only be discovered by looking at the waybill.

The waybill for the load illustrated above is shown below, incidentally conforming to the Car Service Rules.

Of course any of these Chooch crates can equally well be given a label to identify its owner or shipper. Below is one of these, photographed in a passing mainline train on my layout. It happens to be loaded into a General Service or drop-bottom gondola, illustrating the versatility of such cars. (You can click on the image to enlarge it if you wish.)

I continue to use commercial products when they fit my need, though I have constructed a number of scratch-built crates also, as described in some of the posts linked in the first three paragraphs of the present post. Both are welcome in operation and continue to be useful.

Tony Thompson