Imported By: Weaver Models
MSRP February 2011: $75.45

Back at the 2009 National in Towsand, Md. Weaver Models announced they were going to produce the B&O M-53 wagon-top boxcar. That Fall I did something I don’t normally do, I pre-ordered the cars. They have finally arrived and they were worth the wait.

I stopped by my dealer to pick up my cars and he had one he had ordered out on the counter. At first glance, I was blown away, Weaver hit a home-run with this one.

Prototype History
For a complete prototype history of all the B&O Wagon-top boxcars, I highly recommend reading Pat Wider’s article in RP CYC 9. The article talks about the early experimental cars, the rebuilds of the M-15 class of double sheathed boxcars and the built new M53 class of boxcars.

In Ted Culotta’s “Essential Freight cars: 23″ he talks about both the rebuilt and built new wagon-top cars. He points out many detail differences in all the cars.

Prototype Population
380000-381999  2000 M-53 cars built 1937-1938
385000-385999  1000 M-53a cars built 1941
380000-381999  1942 M-53 cars in the January 1952 ORER
385000-385999    986 M-53a cars in the January 1952 ORER

The Models
The overall appearance of the cars is very nice. Paint was smooth and the lettering clean and crisp.

The car weighted in at 15 oz. (the NMRA recommended weight) with the metal side framed trucks from Weaver installed. Yes the Weaver Metal trucks did weigh 3 oz. They will be changed out for a proto48 set of trucks.

The car measures up to the Kadee coupler height gauge at the correct height. I will change out the Weaver couplers. The ladder rungs measure out to be 0.018 inches round, very close to scale 3/4 of an inch.

Some have complained about the door not opening, I think that it is great! They should not be open while a car is moving anyway.

There are some things I plan to upgrade, such as the door tracks and a couple of missing gussets around the striker plate. When I do those upgrades I’ll post about them.

I’ve owned a couple of brass versions of this car in the past. It has been imported by different manufacturers over the years, International, Hallmark, PSC and Overland all have done a form of this car. I’m glad I sold off my brass cars a few years ago. This car is as good or better than most of them.

Weaver has set the bench mark much higher with this car than anything Atlas has brought out in O scale. I think every O scale railroad needs at least one of these cars on the layout. When you look at yard photos of the early and mid fifties, its hard to find a photograph without one of these cars somewhere in the shot.

References

• B&O Wagon-Top Box Cars by Pat Wilder, Railway Prototype Cyclopedia 9
• “Essential Freight Cars: 23 Wagon-top and ribbed side boxcars” by Ted Culotta, RMC July 2005
• Information on the B&O M-53 on the Steam Era Freight Cars Website