Club Cars

   In the recent past, the OMRS has offered to the modeling public "Grain Car" club cars which are a current part of Washington state history.  These cars were the brain child of Stephen Anderson, who played an integral role in getting the car designs and color schemes from the Washington DOT.

   Once we knew the type of cars were to be used in this latest State purchase of rolling stock, we found replica cars from the Athern Blue Box (5300) kits and ordered from Branchline Trains 500 custom painted kits. The 5300 kits are a scale 54 feet long, PS-2 rib-sided covered hopper cars with knuckle couplers and metal wheelsets.  The color scheme chosen by Washington DOT for this last series of cars was the Washington Statue University colors of Crimson Red and Grey.  The Club ordered four different car numbers shown below to offer diversity for the modelers. 

Note: All cars in this series have been sold.

The state history of this program can be found here so the modeler can learn more of this state program.  In 1995, two years after the inception of the grain train prograin, the following abstract was written in support of the program.  Follow these links to learn more of this farming and wheat delivery system used in Washington state to assist the farmers in the eastern part of the state.

Here is a photo of several of the assembled grain car kits from the fourth run of cars: