The Oak Park Society of Model Engineers H.o Scale Model Railroad Club. Oak Park Illinois USA. June 2011.

The Oak Park Society of Model Engineers H.o Scale Model Railroad Club. Oak Park Illinois USA. June 2011., a photo by Eddie from Chicago on Flickr.

I took this photo this past Wednsday night, at The Oak Park Society of Model Engineers H.O Scale Model Railroad Club.

I was born in 1962, and have a tendency to favor modeling the 1960's and 70's era when I was growing up in the city of Chicago Illinois USA.

In a scene practically recreated from the year of 1968 courtesy of My Athearn boxcars, We can see some of the changes that happened to everyday railroading technology back then.

The car to the left, is an Illinois Central Railroad 40 foot Hi Cube box car. Hi Cube box cars, were introduced to American railroads during the mid 1960's. The Illinois Central, began to paint their freight cars in this orange color scheme with the split rail logo in the year of 1967, to modernize their image.

The car to the right, is a New York Central Railroad 50 foot double door box car from the steam era. The prototype was painted in to this Jade green color scheme with the NYC "Cigar Band" logo around 1958.

The New York Central car. features roof walks and a high mounted brake wheel. The Illinois Central car, has no roof walks as they were being phased out during the 1960's for safety reasons, and has a low mounted brake wheel.

Yes, these differences were prototypical.

Thanks.
Eddie K.