Woodies or Steelies?

[Brakie]

Don't be "stuck" on just 40' cars. There were many 50' cars in the 50s. These includes boxcars, flat cars & gondolas. Exactly what kinds depends on the industries on your layout. Being a Santa Fe modeler, have you looked for track charts &/or CLIC books for your modeling area? Also look at aerial pix on Bing, Google &/or historicaerials.com. In the 50s many steam locos were being replaced by diesels on Santa Fe. In fact by 1956 most Santa Fe steam engines were gone & the few kept around were just for company excursions or railfan trips. According to Worley the last 2-8-0 was scrapped by 1954. So you might want to push your era back about 10 years. Also on a few branch lines, Santa Fe used doodlebugs to pull short freight trains (<7 cars).

Andy, The reason I'm sticking with 40' cars is due to my limited space here at the rest home.. They allotted me 9'  so I have 1'x 9' to play with in the hobby area and 40' cars is the better choice for this space.

This is more of a "love" thing because I love my United Santa Fe 2-8-0 I bought in the early 60s and I have always regretted selling it and I love this one more because its nicely painted and lettered. I waited years to find one at the price I was willing to pay and that came about on e-Bay.

In my HO world 1978 still labors away on borrowed time in '55. In fact this engine, combine and station is on the endangered species list and could go extinct any time.    I'm sure a Zebra stripe  GP7,RS-3 or maybe a RSD-4 will be eventually  sent to replace the 1978.
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Wayne, Great looking cars..