Welcome to an information loaded page. Our shopping cart [click here] uses secure paypal payment plan for regularly in stock items. For advance reservation, special sale and limited availability items please use our 800 service or mail order. You are also welcome to order in stock items by 800 or mail [click here for more detailed instruction].  For the very latest updates click here.

Due to impending sale of Red Ball, this page is in archive status.

GOING, GOING…….                                                       

RED BALL WAREHOUSE CLEARANCE SALE            May 10,2008

As has been posted for several months, the Red Ball Line has been for sale.

  A reputable US manufacturer has expressed interest in purchase of the molds, machinery
and carside art. We are embarking on a 6 month program of packing hundreds
of  molds/tooling and thousands of parts in order to facilitate their orderly assimilation
in a new facility they are building for the purpose of keeping Red Ball available..
Thank you for your support of Red Ball during the past 32 years

It has been produced here in Huntington and Roanoke, Indiana .  

Signature and LTD series are not involved in this sale.

Further announcements will follow regarding them.

They should be considered "limited run" effective at once

WE WILL NOT ATTEMPT TO KEEP THE RED BALL PAGE or available parts chart (car & truck page)  PROPERLY

UPDATED DURING  THIS PERIOD OF TRANSITION.

Current  warehouse clearance listing will be found on the home page. It will be frequently updated.

 We cannot enter into custom individual item searches or picking/packing
 or related correspondence during this process. 

(Note: another vintage supplier who is closing operations after finding 
no buyer has not told folks –they are simply selling off inventory. The internet groups
 wonder why their website does not tell that is happening.

This is why-- please respect our request.

ALERT FOR  PARTS FROM STOLEN TOOLING:

 REGARDING THE Red Ball HO B&O WAGONTOP BOXCAR-

Our injection mold for this carbody was stolen from a tool company shop this spring. This steel "box"  (about 1 foot cube)
 has not turned up in local scrapyards. If you become aware of identical body moldings from any source other than 
packaged Red Ball kits please notify the Columbia City , IN police department  260-248-5121. Authentic Red Ball
Styrene moldings are in khaki-tan color.  Cannonball Car Shops parts from the 1980s are in rust red color. They are 
similar but not identical to the Red Ball parts. They are not "suspect."

Various products will be uncovered as we work through the packing process in our warehouse.  These will be
offered on our website HOMEPAGE  as limited run,“must clear out” priced specials. PHONE ORDERS ONLY-

NO PHONE CALLS FOR INFO ANSWERED-ONLY

EMAILS PLEASE. $8 min shipping (US).  Most are unboxed, old pkg  or  bulk bagged. HO unless noted.

Assortments CANNOT be “custom ordered”to include specific items. This listing  will be updated often.

AVAILABLE ONLY WHILE  LISTED HERE (with price):

Available May 10, 2008

#X1 Braced side caboose:  Injection molded styrene plastic body part (ends,sides,cupola) set made in original Red Ball molds $9.50

#X2 PRR X23 Boxcar/ R7 Reefer Injection molded styrene plastic sides and ends made in original Red Ball molds
(no doors or hatches)  $9.50

#X3  36 FOOT Depressed Center Flat Car metal sides only $3.50 /pr

#X4  Bucyrus Erie 200 Ton Wreck Crane metal or mixed metal and styrene (our choice)  CASTING set from kit.   $17.50. W/kit
instructions   #X4A  $19.50

#X5  Scratch Builder Parts Box – Wood era Boxcar, reefer, flatcar, caboose, etc  $50+ worth of metal & styrene parts from orig molds   
$19.50     #X5A    $100+ worth  $37.50

#X6 Scratch Builder Parts Box- Steel era  Boxcar, reefer, flatcar etc  $50+ worth of metal & styrene parts from orig molds $19.50

#X7 HO, S or O  Imported brass single HO searchlight signal head suited  for S or O crassing flasher use. Does not include GOW bulbs    10/ $5.50

 #X8  Semaphore Blade assortment cast   metal   5 / $5.50  #X8A  10/$9.50

 Click here for NEW CSX; CNJ Freight; B&O Wagon decal expanded

HERITAGE SERIES

REVISED REISSUES OF OLD FAVORITES

#772-4464 Single Dome Tank

#772-4380 PRR R7 Reefer

#772-4381 GARX Steel Express Reefer

#772-4386 PRR X23 Boxcar

#772-4318 Wood type Side Dump Car

#772-4319 Steel type Side Dump Car

#772-4320 EMD Piggyback w/trailers

#772-4321 LV Well Hole Flat

#772-4323 NYC LCL Xprs Container Car

#772-4324 P&LE Heavy Duty Flat

#772-4325 Erie Heavy Duty Flat

#772-4328 PRR Semiwell Flat

#772-4337 40ft Piggyback-Monon , others

#772-4342 1880s Ore Car

#772-H1    40ft Flat with Steam shovel

#772-H2    40ft Flat with early dsl crane

#772-4407  Carbon Black Car

#772-H3    N&W Battleship Gondola

#772-H6   Composite Gondola

#772-4307 Jim Crow Car

Chicago Freight Car Troop Sleeper Conversions by Red Ball 

After WWII the war surplus troop cars were a) available, b) bargain priced and c) insulated. A handful of roads purchased them for use as temporary cabooses and some  hundred roads converted them to various unique MofW service cars- especially bunk cars. Red Ball has researched and developed HO & N conversion sides/doors for the wide variety of US railroad revenue conversions of troop sleepers. The CB&Q, Monon, C&EI, D&FtW, N&W and C&S troop kitchen conversions were less involved due to the wider door in the original cars. Sheathing the windows "does the job" on these- Cannonball offers the sheathed kit for both phases.  PGE, Ontario Northland and Algoma Central also made revenue sleeper conversions in Canada.  Railroad-made conversions were unique. Except the M&StL cars, the best spotting features are the sheathed windows and tabs (rarely on other express cars) along the lower edge.  They show up at a distance in passenger train pictures. Roof vents were often removed, ends were relatively unchanged (but hard to see in most photos) and no ladders or roof walks (nor car data in lettering) were found on the express, baggage and RPO cars.  Some were later placed in maintenance service and may then have sprouted walks or ladders. Roads creating their own  unique "headend" sleeper variation fleets were B&O; B&M (3); C&O; DL&W (EL); Frisco; M&StL;  NYC (2); New Haven;  REA and Rock Island. These unique car kits and sides are offered by Red Ball.

A large number of sleepers were also converted to revenue service by the Chicago Freight Car firm and these changed more radically.  Their window sheathing is still a clincher. But the car ends were drastically revised --re-sheathed to a new configuration and "roof end apron" removed-- and they received more conventional brake wheel & platform arrangements, ladders and roof walks.  Historians may uncover the business arrangement involved, but the Chicago firm rebuilt a fleet of some 400 sleepers into [insulated] 50 foot boxcars for the government owned Alaska Railroad and ended up owning a fleet of sleepers they converted to CRDX express refrigerator cars for Railway Express Agency (#6600-6799) and Kansas City Southern (CRDX#1001-1025 ). Photos and more information are found on the TROOP CAR page at www.mrrwarehouse.com. After the collapse of REA, many of these reefers were found in service of others including Kraft Foods and San Luis Central.   The Red Ball conversions to build Express Reefers and Alaska Boxcars utilize a brass side/end piece that is creased on the inside for easy bending.  The side/end pieces are glued to the styrene floor and roof to form the basic carbody.  Etched brass ladders, roof walk and brake wheel & housing are then attached to the car.  Reefer doors are double etched onto the brass sides. Plastic ice hatches are provided for the roof and may be installed "open" or closed.  Brass boxcar doors and guides are added to the Alaska car's exteriors.  Later in the life of Alaska boxcars, many of them found a new life as 8000 series "high cubes."  The roof and top few feet was torched off of some cars and welded to the bottom majority of others.  The exact "dotted lines" (cut lines) varied with the condition of the cars being used.  Doors and ends were similarly spliced to the new height. These tall cars were unpopular with crews as they had a tendency to blow over while descending the canyon to the car ferry for interchange service. You may wish to add weight inside the floor to avoid this prototypical behavior.  The left-over topless cars acted as scrap hauling gondolas for a one -way last trip to the scrap metal yard.  The regular 50 foot box cars progressed through various stages of walk removal and ladder modification / removal. They had two main lettering schemes in their lifetimes.

Please refer to the special drawings and photos as you construct your conversion kit. Construction process is underlined in the text above.  REA / KCS ice hatch detail shown here.  Prototype detail photos are included with Alaska boxcars.

Alaska boxcars carried 2 major variation lettering schemes.   Prototype detail photos are courtesy of Jeff Childs (of Anchorage).  In revenue service they were numbered in the 104XX series.  When assigned to MofW they became 15XX cars. Cars P-14 and P-15 were power cars with  diesel engines, generators and fuel tanks inside for mid train power  on TOFC trains. They had mufflers and exhaust on the roof. Boxcar decals are offered by  www.roundhousehobbies.com

Jeff's photos show 1560E still with roof walk; 10418 with the earlier scheme and 1580S with the later of the two main lettering schemes. The cars were boxcar red in revenue service. We also wish to thank Patrick Durand for extensive research and pilot model assistance.  A great deal more information is found on the TROOP CAR page at www.mrrwarehouse.com

Red Ball offers ALL US revenue conversions of WWII troop sleepers.  All other US conversions of troop sleepers were non revenue cars that can be made using Cannonball basic troop conversion kits. Canadian express cars: Algoma Central, Ontario Northland and most PGE cars can also be easily made using the Cannonball kit. That kit correctly builds both variations of troop sleepers. Cannonball alone offers  ph1 cars most commonly used as MofW bunk type cars. BAR and D&M cabooses are offered on our LTD page.  C&O and Miss Exp cabooses can be built with Cannonball kit.-Monon cabooses (Berwyk end) and CB&Q open window express cars build from Cannonball open window kitchen cars. Other US kitchen car conversuions, with correct ends for some only in the Cannonball kits

RED BALL ETCHED BRASS HO CAR BUILDERS PARTS

#772-1763 Boxcar stirrups with saddle that straddles floor as used in our B&O M53 boxcar. Sturdy but only look fragile. 2 cars $3.95 now avail

#772-1703 Coil Hood Lifting Brackets etched brass replacements for Walthers plastic parts  $TBA

#772-4460C Link & Pin Coupler

Working coupler matches our Manns Creek Cars 2 pairs $3.95 now avail

#772-4098D B&M  6 ft Express Door

3 lite used later in 4 door troop conversion $6.00 pr

TROOP  SLEEPER  CONVERSION SIDES  HO $25   N $21.95

REEFER & ALASKA BOXCARS  not avail.

Add the letter D after the HO kit number. For N scale also add the letter N ahead of the 4 digit kit ID in the HO kit list shown above.

Meanwhile… Another model railroader who had built over a half dozen HO Mann's Creek hoppers and a couple log cars in a couple months of spare time said he had found some tricks as he went that made construction faster and more fun. He agreed to share his ideas and then he tested them on an O scale model of each car at my request. We share here some drawings he sketched, his tips (with a couple of my additions as noted) and closeup pictures he took of the O scale models he built. We supplied sample kits to all the magazines that request that manufacturers do that and since none of the major model magazines have built and published their results nine months after the kits' release this young man has indicated he intends to try writing an article and supplying IT to one of the major magazines-we'll see how they do with THAT. So here we share his tips, his sketches and his photos

Boss Merle .  

Tips and pictures for assembling Mann's Creek Buggy and Hopper Cars (McCars: McBuggy and McHopper.) 

and New HOPPER CARS

HO Limited Run Now Available

Nitric Acid Tank Car kit

I hope this doesn't sound like a foreign language… 

1. I began my first cars by using 5-minute epoxy on brass-to-plastic and brass-to-brass connections. It holds very strong, but you have to wait for it to set up, sometimes as long as 20 minutes. I've switched to using Crazy Glue/Super Glue/Cyanoacrylate (CA) adhesive, and it works just as well, and allows construction to proceed more quickly. Put a puddle of glue on a scrap of folded paper or cardboard, a spot about the size of a nickel or quarter will do. Apply glue to one piece with a toothpick, pin, or short length of wire. I prefer a short piece of .020" diameter wire with a small loop bend into the end. Like a letter P or a letter J. The liquid fills the eye of the loop, and you can get more adhesive to spread out that way. Press the two pieces together. If your finger gets stuck, do not panic. It happens. Carefully peel your finger away from the joint. You've only got so much skin, so you have a limited number of times you can get stuck. I use a liquid plastic cement that applies with a brush for plastic-to-plastic joints.
2. Decide what kind of trucks (wheels and their frames) go under the car. Drill the intersecting frame members for the appropriate screw. It is hard to accommodate trucks and couplers (hook the cars together) after the car is completed. It is much easier to do this first.
3. I trim the brass pieces from the frets with Xuron Rail Cutters. On the small HO scale pieces, I used a sharp razor blade too. This won't work on the thicker brass pieces of the larger scale cars. I also filed the ends of the thicker pieces with a small metal file. Just a few licks to take off any sharp burr.

NOTE FROM RED BALL-we've used the miniature metal snips successfully after writing the instructions too. 

4. Do the McBuggy first, it is a lot easier than the McHopper.
5. The 'H" shaped metal straps that go up and over the McBuggy frame are not etched in the correct places on the back side. Refer to the web site or the photocopied article to see how these cars go together. Use two pairs of pliers to place bends in the desired places, and at the same time, to prevent the stress raisers (where etched thin) from bending.
6. On the McHopper, it may be necessary to file the corners so they fit properly if one end is a little long. If you file it down, you get an even stronger joint when you glue it up. Be VERY careful to get the end (plastic) slope sheets 'right side up."

NOTE FROM RED BALL- we think he's referring to the O model. We've encountered no fit problems here. But you'll see in his (O scale) pictures the fit isn't as tight as in the HO pictures on our home page. Interestingly, many prototype photos fit about that way too.

7. If you are installing brakes, install them BEFORE gluing the body and frame together. It is awfully difficult to put crossbeams in AFTER they body and frame are together. You may need to splice the brakes with pieces of strip plastic, which is why you need to know about the trucks: it affects placement of the crossbeams that support the brakes, and it affects the spacing of the brake shoes. If changing the width, cut the brakes in the middle with wire cutters. Don't use a Dremel motor tool. It can vibrate the brake shoe right off the rest of the piece! Once separated, join them with a piece of strip plastic and superglue.
8. McHopper hinges: These were designed to be operational, but it is a lot faster if you glue the doors shut, and then glue the hinge pieces on, making the hinges fixed. Trim the flat excess off the hinge pieces. Leave the thin section for the brass wire to lay in. See attached drawing. For the center hinge pair, trim the protruding bolt-head from the upper portion of the car side. It's a nice touch, but has to go in order to get the hinges on. Don't worry about the orientation of the upper and lower hinge straps in the center of the car, they (the prototype cars) were all different.
9. McHopper door latches: Separate the latch pieces and threat them on to the wire. I glued ONE support at the end of the car, and threaded all the other pieces on. When the wire was straight, I glued the remaining 3 supports to the car end and frame cross pieces. Glue the door latches onto the wire so they are straight. They want to fall over.
10. Be very careful bending the end platforms for the HO scale McHoppers, if you do those cars. The 3 end pieces are extremely fragile, and aren't held on by much metal.
11. I found it necessary to drill the hole in the brass slope sheet insert to enlarge it. The drill bit wants to get stuck, so be patient and persistent. The 'T" shaped piece with the turnbuckle needs to be trimmed on the left and right ends so it fits BETWEEN the car sides. Glue it to the slope sheet and to the car sides with Super Glue.

NOTE FROM RED BALL-this could also be done after bending the slope sheet by filing across the hole with a jeweler or pattern maker's miniature round file. 

ANOTHER NOTE FROM RED BALL-he didn't mention this here, but he told us he encountered a tight wire fit on the door latch 'dogs" an HO hopper kit. Because of the manufacturing process in photoetching this could occasionally occur in either scale. We use the wire sold quite inexpensively by Tichy. Substitution of a smaller wire is suggested rather than trying to drill or ream delicate parts..

ABOUT RED BALL

Red Ball has been owned by Wabash Valley Lines, Inc.(Huntington, IN)  since 1975. MRRW's Merle Rice  has managed  Red Ball production and kit/tooling  design for Wabash Valley during that time. Car sides by Wabash Valley have been produced on scribed wood by silk screening and, a few late editions of the 1980's, by pad printing. The printed cars were produced by M Dale Newton until 1955 and by Howell Day (Dunellen, NJ) 1955-75. They utilized heavy cardstock, which was 'scribed" by impression with a rule die on the letterpress. Mr. Day made a few laminated paper/wood sided cars and some specialty cars used a paper wrap. In addition to the printed side cars, the Red Ball line has featured about 300 unique prototypes requiring their own crisply die cast metal parts since World War II. Few printed side cars (boxcars & reefers) were identical in size, doors, ends etc as the extensive Red Ball part line has always emphasized prototype fidelity.   The rare pre-war Red Ball line is mostly unknown to today's collectors but it included many cars with plastic castings. Mr. Newton re-established  the line after a devastating fire at his Medford, Oregon plant.  Mr. Day was an early importer of Japanese brass models that were also marketed under the Red Ball brand. He also sold the very first HO styrene car kits, Kurtz Kraft's  PS1 boxcars and steel reefers, under the Red Ball brand for a period of time. M Dale Newton, Howell Day and Merle Rice continually added unique kits to the line over the years with well over a thousand DIFFERENT PROTOTYPE CARS (not just different paint schemes) having been offered by Red Ball. The extensive line of Red Ball freight and passenger trucks was sold to 'Cape Line" by Mr Day.  The car sides and kits are now  highly prized in the collector market.

ALL CURRENTLY AVAILABLE AND RESERVABLE RED BALL KITS ARE LISTED IN THE WEBSITE SHOPPING CART CATALOG.

Hard to find and Collectible Red Ball items may be listed in the YARDSALE page of our website. Beginning in JAN 2003 MRRW will make FREE postings of advertisements for individuals SEEKING or SELLING out of production RED BALL, HOMETOWN, QUICKIT and CANNONBALL CAR SHOPS. See ads and details on the YARDSALE page.

SKU

772-

NAME

Plastic

Metal

SKU

772-

NAME

Plastic

Metal

1001

End Sill pr

1220

Tool Box pr

1002

Covered Hopper Door

1222

Car Door pr

$2.50

1013

Car Door  pr

$2.50

1223

Car end pr

1016

Steps (4)

$3.75

1230

Flanger plow pr

1019

Hatches set