Tichy makes kits

Tichy makes several unpainted kits for that era.  But if you are looking for RTR, you're right, there is very little available for pre-1950.

Before anyone starts whining about age bias, keep in mind that this is a hobby and many of the manufacturers are either owned or staffed by hobbyists.  And hobbyists favor their own passions.  Most people with memories of trains before 1950 are now in their late '70s at least.  I have several friends in that category, and about half of them love to build F&C and Westerfield kits, and the other half thinks the first half is crazy....

Today's companies at the top of the detailed RTR heap, like Arrowhead, ExactRail, Moloco, Rapido, and Tangent, are all owned by passionate but younger modelers, and in most cases they have focused on post-1960 freight cars because it's what they're familiar with.  We are starting to see some older equipment out of them, like Rapido's Northern Pacific boxcar and Tangent's General-American Type 17 tank car, both good for the 1920s and later.

Most of us model what we've experienced, with a bias towards memories from our teens and twenties.  However, I know some Twenty-Somethings that are passionate about pre-1900 railroading, of which there is almost nothing available in kit or RTR.  They've scanned old photos of freight cars, squared them up, colorized them, printed them out, and glued the image to scratchbuilt boxcar sides.  Then added ladders and grabs over them.  Just like our forefathers in the hobby did in the early days.  And they look very good.

(When I gently pointed out their equipment should have link & pin couplers, they said they were passionate, not rabid....)

Scott Chatfield

Well.....

I model the early 1950's (1939-1953,  I have a few prototypes that were scrapped in WWII,  really try for 1948-53) in N Scale, and if it wasn't for Micro Trains, my rolling stock would be really limited. I would love to have those Tichy and Westerfield kits in N....but no, every manufacturer thinks that N Scale is a RTR scale...

I do like tichy

And I have about 15 of those, and several "6 packs" to build. They ARE easier than Westy. Still, it would be nice to have some stuff I could take outta the box, and put on the lay out! 

  "nothing for the

Somewhere in Between

Intermountain, they have detailed cars for the late 30's through the 40's; 

1937 AAR 40 ft. Boxcars, both single and double doors; 1937 Modified AAR 40ft. Boxcars; 40 ft. War Emergency Boxcars; 40 ft. Boxcars w/4-3-1 Dreadnaught Ends; X29 Boxcars; USRA Composite Drop Gondolas; Casewell Gondolas, as well as PS-1 40 ft. Boxcars.

James Barnes, Jr.

Tank cars for the 1920’s are available in Tichy kits.

I have found RTR tank cars but the paint schemes were ~1950 as far I could decipher. BLI makes them and they aren’t cheap. I model the 1920’s and Accurail is about 70%of my fleet, Bowser 25% and few Tichy kits fill out the roster. I have 1 Bachmann tank car with a correct looking paint scheme with time period correct dates but I suspect the car is newer and larger than 1920’s prototypes. 
 

Tank cars are the main car type I am missing. Thankfully they were rather rare back then. I wish there was a shake the box choice for tank cars because Tichy kits are a bunch of small pieces that take me quite awhile to assemble into the finished product. Then I have to paint it and decal it. 
 

I model 1925 because it was the peak of the industrial era where I model. 

Tank cars weren't rare in 1925

But the most common types in 1925 were built before 1917 and relatively few of them survived past the Depression in revenue service.  And thus there have been very few models of pre-1917 tank cars.

1917 is an important dividing line in tank car designs because all new cars after that had to have double-rivet joints or be welded.  Pre-1917 designs with single-rivet joints became known as ARA-I and ARA-II specs, and if memory serves sometime around 1930 they could no longer haul flammable liquids.  That ended their revenue careers, although many were sold to railroads for company or MofW service.

The old MDC "Van Dyke" tank car represents a Union Tank Car (UTLX) Type W built in the early 1900s.  Unfortunately the model's frame is about twice as thick as it should be.  Many Type Ws started life as frameless Type Vs and were rebuilt with frames when it became apparent that riveting technology wasn't yet up to the task.  Or at least the railroads didn't think it was.  A fair number of Type Ws lasted into the 1950s.

Other Type Vs were rebuilt for use on the narrow gauge lines of the Rio Grande, among them the famous "Gramps" tank cars.  Precision Scale has kits for these variations.  Has about as many parts as the Tichy kits.

Speaking of which, the Tichy kits represent early post-1917 spec "ARA-III" non-pressure, uninsulated tank cars.  Apparently one small order of these were built by AC&F in 1917 or 1918 and then the design with the smaller dome was used for the proposed USRA tank cars to be built in 1919 or 1920.  But since the USRA had no say in the matter of tank car construction or use none were actually built for the USRA.  By the time the owners of tank cars actually needed more cars the design had become AC&F's "Type 21" design, and thousands of them were built.  Life-Like and now Walthers made those.  Again, a kit with as many parts as the Tichy.  You seeing a trend?....

Tangent recently offered a very nice model of General-American's post-1917 "ARA-III" tank.  Thousands of these were built in the 1920s.

In 1927 the ICC took over regulation of tank car designs and the ARA-III, ARA-IV, and ARA-V specs became the ICC-103 (non-pressure), ICC-104 (non-pressure insulated for high vapor pressure liquids), and ICC-105 (pressure for liquified gases).

And no, none of the Athearn tank cars do a 1925 modeler any good.

Scott Chatfield

Rapido does

Rapido just announced the USRA Single Sheathed box cars, they have also produced the USRA Double Sheathed cars, NP Double Sheathed cars, plus GATX reefers, and are also producing GLA hoppers, PRR F30A flat cars, and PRR X31A box and auto cars.

I did a post on the USRA Single Sheathed cars c1950 to help you choose:

Randy's Layout Blog: USRA Single Sheathed Box Cars (newbritainstation.com)

Aside from those, Atlas produced the 1932 ARA Box Car, and has the ex-Branchline Postwar (1944) AAR Box Car.

Intermountain has their 1937 AAR Box Car, the Modified (1941) AAR Box Car, War Emergency single sheathed box cars, and several others. They also have the ex-Red Caboose 1923 AAR Recommended Practice box car (X29), and other Red Caboose models. Not to mention all the PFE and other reefers they produce.

Walthers has the ex-Proto 2000 Mather single sheathed box and auto cars, AAR Standard 50-ton flats, AAR Standard 50' box and auto cars, Greenville gondolas, and more.

The one kind of BLI box car was one of the most common cars on the road c1923-1950. There were still more than 20,000 in 1952. 

In other words, there's a lot out there. Many that I didn't mention here. It's nice that Rapido so far has been focusing on c1918-30 prototypes, since that era hasn't been covered in plastic as well as the 1937+ era.

Randy

Detail,Detail,Detail = Handle with care!

Agree,

I have been building detailed kits of many buildings and rolling stock for one reason for yrs.

As I noticed early on.  Many friends rolling stock look the same.

Lost a U.P. car yrs. ago on friends op. session that was a RTR from Athearn  and have never looked back.

But some detail cars,  like Proto, Tichy and E & B Valley kits are one of a kind when finished.

Price is a major point for some also.  Kits for around $8.00 and up.  And RTR $?

But for some no matter the reason who wish for RTR,  I agree. I would not mind putting a few $ out at swap or train shows for used RTR to weather, ect.

Boudreaux,  B.C.E. R.R.

The difference between men and boys, are the price of their toys....