News: Freight Cars
This report lists freight cars that are available or in the works. This page may also contain detailing parts and other items applicable to these cars. Click photos to visit the web sites.
GATC 4180 Airslide Covered Hopper Kit by Benn Central Shops
In 2024, Ben Trousdale, owner of Benn Central Shops, released the kit for the General American Car Company 4180 Airslide covered hopper. There were six phases of production of this car from 1963 through 1980. That 2024 kit was for the final, or late-1970 "HC", phase of the car. This time Ben is releasing the "TZH" phase (the second) version of this car. It was manufactured from June 1965 through March 1966. The kit is now available to order from 3D Central Trains. The kit is for the car only, so no wheels, trucks, or couplers. The web site shows pre-production models.
2/1963 to 5/1964: HAT phase:
- full-height ladders at the side corners, hat-section side posts, high handbrakes, Z-section horizontal end braces, and wire-loop roping eyes.
6/1965 to 3/1966: TZH phase (this new kit):
- change to the truck centers, and a change to bolster jacking plates with integral roping eyes.
1/1966 to 6/1966: TZC phase:
- side posts changed to a fabricated square-column style.
9/1966 to 1/1969: TZL phase:
- identical to TZH but with low-mounted handbrakes and half-height ladder grabs (due to regulation changes).
8/1969 to 1/1970: HZ phase:
- identical to TZC phase, but with I-beam style posts.
10/1970 to 10/1980: HC phase (previous kit):
- this final phase featured square tube-style horizontal end braces.
These cars lasted into the 2000s.
A.C. Gilbert Flat Car Conversion Kits
The newly-discovered eBay store by the name of "bnoggle1", based in Erie, Pennsylvania, has been on eBay since 2013, and offers a number of scenery detailing parts. Apparently recently, they have introduced a collection of 3D-printed, molded-in-color, conversion kits, to convert A.C. Gilbert general-service (plain) flat cars into bulkhead flat cars or Centerbeam flat cars. They are compatible with those cars that have holes in the deck of the car (which probably excludes the early metal ones). The parts arrive unpainted, but don't need to be primed. You can paint them with either acrylic or latex paints. Note that the cars shown in the photos are for demonstration purposes only and are not included.
Trinity Hi-cube FBox (updated) by Smoky Mountain Model Works
Ben Trousdale designed this Trinity Hi-cube plug door box car (in the real world these appeared starting in 2004), and he is working with Jim King, of Smoky Mountain Model Works, to turn this into a kit. Jim had indicated that his "best guess" is around $95 for a kit minus trucks, couplers, and decals. Price depends on the quantity of kits produced. The trucks and decals will be available as well, for an extra fee. Contact Jim "now" if you want to be put on the list, if you haven't contacted him previously.
Start an e-mail message (jimking3@charter.net).
Prototype Couplers
New to this web site is a company called "Prototype Couplers", based in Springfield, Vermont, who have been producing a slightly-improved version of the second iteration of Frank Sergent's (of Sergent Engineering) prototypical coupler since 2023. They offer the coupler in various scales, including for S-scale. They use the same method, same materials, and same suppliers for the couplers as Frank used. So, if you prefer Frank's couplers, they are available in S. They only offer the coupler and replacement balls. The coupler is a kit and requires some assembly (the parts are tiny). The price on the web site is for 4 couplers (i.e. for two cars or engines). Since installing these couplers usually requires a custom solution, no draft gear box is included. Smoky Mountain Model Works has those available, should you want to use those. For those not familiar with these couplers, they are based on the prototype and function like the prototype. A magnet is required to lift the enclosed metal ball, to open the coupler head. When two pieces of rolling stock couple, the metal ball falls back down due to gravity, and locks the head, prevent uncoupling. They are not self-centering, and they are not directly compatible with other couplers, such as those by Kadee Products. They do offer a very realistic look and they offer a realistic operating experience, including, for example, being able to couple on a curve. If you have never used these and are interested, order just one set and test them out, first, to see if you like them.
Rutland Freight Car Designs
John Stamford, under the name of "JohnCS", has made available two of his HO-scale designs in S-scale, namely the Rutland 40-foot flat car (2700-series) and the Rutland 41-foot high-sided gondola (4500-series). These designs are freely available via Thingiverse, which you can download and print using a 3D-printer. The flat car design is recessed such that a 15-gauge sheet of metal can be incorporated into the frame to give it some extra weight. The files include the brake stand and the brake wheel; everything else, the modeler has to provide. The car had a wooden deck in the real world. The unique thing about these real-world flat cars is that the brake stand could fold down to get out of the way of loading and unloading. These cars were used to transport raw and finished marble blocks between Colorado and Vermont. Most famously, they carried the marble used for the "Tomb of the Unknown Soldier". They were built by ACF in 1912. The gondola is a composite car consisting of a steel frame and 5-board high wooden sides. Its design file is just for the frame-and-body, as shown in the CAD diagram.
Roller Bearing Trucks by Smoky Mountain Model Works
Jim King, of Smoky Mountain Model Works, announced that he has gotten enough interest for the 70-ton and 100-ton version of his roller bearing trucks, and he is producing them now.
Start an e-mail message (jimking3@charter.net).
Treadwell 200-ton Bottle Car Kit by Tully Models
While as the NASG webmaster I do enjoy searching and researching S-scale items, this entry has me a bit baffled. If you know more about this, please let me know. Here goes...
I was updating links for the company "Steel Mill Modelers Supply". Their web site recently changed and some of the links we had to their products no longer worked. Perusing their site, I came across this car. While the car looked "familiar" to me, I didn't think that we have it listed on the NASG web site. Sure enough, we don't (or didn't). But, when I clicked on the product page, I noticed that the web site address changed to "Tully Models". Is "Steel Mill Modelers Supply" owned by "Tully Models"? I don't know. They have two different cities listed on their respective sites. Then, when I added this car kit listing to the "One-of-a-kind" sub-category of this web site's "Product Gallery", I realized where I had seen this car before. It was for the "State Tool & Die" company. Both Tully Models and State Tool & Die list their cars as based on the Treadwell bottle car, but Tully's is listed as a 200-ton car and State Tool & Die is listed as 130-ton one. Yet, carefully comparing the photos of the two models, they are, other than color, identical. Is that by accident? Are these three companies somehow related? Are they sub-contracting from one another? They all list the same price for the S-scale kit, which, by the way, comes with everything except for decals.
Again, if you know, let me know, so that I can update the documentation.
Open Source 3D-printer Files for Freight Car Trucks by RamBros Workshop
The company has made available files for several freight car trucks compatible with their Dragon Railway system. Their freight car models indicate which trucks they need. These are files that you are free to download, modify, and print yourself. The files include the frame and wheels.
Open Source 3D-printer Files for Freight Cars by RamBros Workshop
The company has made available new models under their Dragon Railway system. These are files that you are free to download, modify, and print yourself. The files include the body and the frame. The company has separate files available for their trucks and wheels and their couplers (see their page).
Stock Car Project (updated) by Smoky Mountain Model Works
Jim King, of Smoky Mountain Model Works, has completed his O-scale project for Nickel Plate 36-foot stock cars, both single deck and double deck versions. He is willing to invest the time it takes to scale his designs to S-scale to produce this kit in S.
A bit of background history of stock cars in S-scale. S-Helper Service produced a number of stock cars (40-foot models), but MTH never did a re-run of them, and it doesn't look like ScaleTrains is going to do them anytime soon (if ever). East West Rail Service produced C&O, SOO, and SP kits over a dozen years ago. Stock cars in S are rare, so this is a fantastic opportunity.
Important: the photo is of the O-scale pilot model assembled by a well-known O-scale modeler.
Update: orders for this car are coming, but Jim needs about 25 more reservations to make this project a "go". Please help support this project; you can always sell the kit on the secondary market if you don't want it later on. If you don't like building kits, there are modelers who are willing to do so, so don't let that be a deterrent. These are going to be beautiful models.
Start an e-mail message (jimking3@charter.net).
Planned Freight Car Trucks by Plate C Model Prototypes
Plate C Model Prototypes used to have S-scale freight car trucks for sale that the owner, Adam Chilcote, printed himself. He offers trucks in other scales as well, and got overwhelmed by the orders. So, he contracted with the 3D Central to have them take over the order-taking and printing. Along the way, his S-scale trucks were not migrated over to the 3D Central site. Adam is now wanting to devote time and energy toward getting us the trucks we want in S-scale. His objective is to offer them complete with wheelsets, but that is still up for discussion. However, he has a large collection of trucks designed for use in other scales, and is planning to make them all available in S-scale as well. He has provided a PDF file that details all of the trucks he has done so far (see the link; ignore the "code 88" reference at the top of the document). He had previously done these in S-scale, and will be offering them again, soon: 4101-01, 4109-01, 4112-01, 4116-01. He is tentatively planning on starting this effort in the second half of May. What he is asking us, is to provide him with feedback as to which ones of the trucks he has already designed that you would like to buy in S. That way he can focus on those first. Contact him via e-mail.
Start an e-mail message (achilcote94@gmail.com).
U.S. 250th Anniversary Box Car by Lionel
Lionel announces their U.S.A. 250th Anniversary car. It is scheduled to arrive in November 2026. Contact your preferred dealer to place your order. Lionel showed it sold out already within a month.
Pipe Loads by Milwaukee Flyer
Milkwaukee Flyer has recently released a number of pipe loads. These are designed to go into the A.C. Gilbert gondolas, but they should work for other brands as well.
Wrapped Lumber Loads
New to this web site is a company by the name of Hopper Hill Hobbies. Owner Thomas Vaughan hand-builds solid-wood wrapped lumber loads in N- and HO-scales, and he is now expanding into S-scale as well. Please note that their S-scale offerings aren't listed on their web site, yet. Fellow S-modeler, Mark Charles, ordered some to examine them and was impressed with them. His was a scale 60 feet long, 11 feet tall, and 4 feet deep. They should be a perfect fit for the Pre-Size Model Specialties' centerbeam flat cars.
Sn2 Trucks 3D-printer Files
Tom Bell, of Tebee Models, has made available a collection of 3D-printer .stl files of a variety of Sn2 freight car trucks. These can be freely downloaded. He states that he doesn't have the appropriate wheelsets (they are designed to take the Kadee HOn3 ones), so he cannot vouch for the design, but if you try and print them, he would appreciate your feedback.
Review of ScaleTrains' Reefer
TSG Multimedia does a nice review of the recently-released ScaleTrains reefer.
Trailer-on-Flat-Cars with Trailers by ScaleTrains
ScaleTrains announces their next S-scale freight car, the trailer-on-flat-car (TOFC or "Piggy-back") model. Some railroads built these cars from new and some converted existing flat cars into TOFC service. These are the 53'6" General Steel Casting Corp cars, which had been released by S-Helper Service (SHS) in 1997. For the cars with road names previously released, ScaleTrains made sure to use a different road number than what SHS used, so that you can expand on your existing train. The Milwaukee Road car is a new road name, and SHS only released a red/brown TTX car, so the ScaleTrains' yellow car is new as well. ScaleTrains is also offering more road numbers than the original SHS run, for most of the road names. The cars come with one 35-foot dry-goods trailer (additional models available separately). As is standard with ScaleTrains, the models come with hi-rail couplers and wheels installed, and the boxes include the scale couplers and wheels for easy conversion. You can place your pre-order now and they are scheduled to arrive in June of 2026.
Detailing Parts by Ye Olde Huff 'n Puff
In May 2025, the current owners of Ye Olde Huff 'n Puff, LaBelle Woodworking, added their catalog of cast metal S-scale parts to their web site. It is kind of hidden in their site, so this post is to let you know what they have available. Note that the company can also produce, on demand, any of their HO- or O-scale decals in S-scale.
Reefers by ScaleTrains
As the webmaster, I somehow completely forgot to announce the arrival of the ScaleTrains reefers back in mid-September. For that I apologize. Most of the cars are still available for sale at ScaleTrains. These are the late-1920s cars similar to the ones that S-Helper Service had previously released. Multiple road numbers are available, as well as two factory-painted but undecorated models.
Logging Skeleton Car Kit by Cinder Sam
Harry Noble (a.k.a. "Cinder Sam") offers a kit consisting of parts that provide the bodies of three log-carrying cars for $14. A two-pack assembled version is also available for $10. The modeler needs to provide the trucks, with the model designed for use with A.C. Gilbert link-coupler trucks, Lionel archbar trucks, or Marx trucks. Harry is an NASG member. Contact him to order these as follows:
Harry Noble
1124 Old Springfield Pike
Xenia, Ohio 45385
(937) 972-1576 (phone or text)
New Resin Sn42 Freight Car Kits by South Dock Models
If you enjoy Sn42/Sn3.5 and/or New Zealand Railway modeling, you might be interested to know that South Dock Models (based in New Zealand) has significantly expanded their listing of freight and passenger cars, as well as vans (cabooses). There are too many to list individually, so visit their web site to view their entire inventory.
Re-run of Waffle-sided Box Car by Smoky Mountain Model Works
Jim King is will do another run of the 5277cuft waffle-sided box car kit if the demand is there. The first run was done back in 2008. These are 50' cars built starting in 1974 and used by a variety of railroads.
Start an e-mail message (jimking3@charter.net).
Be sure to see all, or other, products announced over the past year via the main News page.