Freight Cars - 500 Series

These are diecast cars, and all seven of them were introduced in the 1939 catalog.  All were available as kits.  Like the other diecast rolling stock, they feature excellent detail, including the underframes, and are also prone to the warping problem.  They are generally much rarer and more expensive than the pressed steel cars.

The gondola, tank car, and caboose appear to use the same prototype designs and lettering as HO cars introduced in 1938, apart from changes in the numbers.

The 500 freight cars all had nice decals, although they tend to deteriorate, and finding cars in good cosmetic condition is difficult.  They are also heavy, of course, and so train length is limited.

504 Gondola

Lettered as Lehigh and New England  15508.  The catalog number does not appear on the car.

Some warping of the sides is evident.

Nice underbody detail.

506 Box Car

This particular model was acquired with the paint in poor condition, and was repainted while leaving the decals in place.  I wish somebody would make repro decals for these cars.

The underframe is detailed, but there is no floor.

From an online auction, somebody found an original set of decals, probably for a kit 506.  They came in a little round cardboard box. 

508 Hopper

This is the only diecast car in this series that was produced after the war, with S gauge trucks.

The 508 has doors that can open, but unlike the 486 there is no mechanism for controlling them.
The same was true of the 632.

510 Stock Car

This is a highly detailed casting.  The doors are sheet metal.

Like the box car, there is no floor.

512 Texaco Tank Car

Lettered as TCX 5802.  The catalog number does not appear on the car.

And in comparison to the pressed-steel tank cars:

514 Crane Car

The 514 had the same cab and boom assembly as the 481 crane and the same diecast underframe as the 512 tank car -- pretty clever.  The cab and boom assembly seems to be identical to the S gauge 635 as well.

516 Caboose

The 516 was numbered 5160, and lettered for either NYC or UP.  So far, the only one I've been able to acquire had bad paint and numbering, so it's been repainted.  Perhaps it was a kit.  Now I need to find decals.

From an online auction: