Wisconsin Central Jackpot Part 1.

The Wisconsin Central has slowly been working it's way into my collection and my heart. 

As an interesting Midwestern line it already piqued my interest and as it's now owned by CN it's a great companion to the CN, EJ&E, and IC items in my collection especially if I want to run a 2000s era train.   I've picked up a few WC items here and there with but they are not common in the bargain circles I move in.

However, I recently completed the purchase of a bulk box of WC (with some CN hoppers and a CSX boxcar) that rather blew my mind.   I won't reveal the price but suffice to say it's not far off the "target" price that I established at the start of the blog . On top of this, the quality is more up to current standards rather than the classic BB'ish equipment I normally purchase. 

For the purposes of this post I'm showing off the sealed packs of WC and CN covered hoppers.  Near as I can tell these are perhaps a decade old special run by Intermountain for "Pacific Rail Systems".   

They each have a unique nice wrap around the back with history and pictures so I cut the shrink wrap off one edge and then reinforced the remaining  wrap in packing tape.  Keeps everything  together nicely and keeps in place a protective layer for the boxes and decorative wraps. 

I realize there are newer, even more detailed cars, but these are definitely the best in my collection with the most breakable details.  Unless I find some innovative way to transport them safely, these will likely continue to be kept and transported in their original packaging. 

One example of the 6 WC Covered hoppers. 

One of the 3 CN Hoppers.

No surprise that the details, printing and paint work is great on all these.  There are a few spots on a couple cars where a walk has buckled a bit near the center of the car but I think I should be able to fix that with a bit of glue and clamps

All of them run as good as they look.  

Cruising on the Layout of the Oak Park Society of Model Engineers.

The Walthers GP9M isn't as quiet as it could be since it's a DC loco running on a DCC system but it runs well enough and it's smooth as silk on my home DC loop.   More on this and the other WC loco (a sweet Blue Box F45) from the lot in a future post.  I have quite a few of these Walthers GP9M's.  I'm considering converting one or two to DCC and just swapping shells when necessary.

There is no question that quality wise these cars are all fantastic.  It's only by fluke that they fell into my budget this time but for fans of WC or CN with slightly deeper pockets these are fine cars and definitely worth hunting for.

Be well,

Karl