Micro-Stories: Box Car Interior Loads #1 to #4
©2006 George J. Irwin. All rights reserved. Legal Stuff
Beginning in January 2006, Micro-Trains began releasing selected boxcars with interior loads. The first of these was the 034 00 330 Seaboard Air Line 50 foot double door boxcar. This was not only a first for MTL but possibly for the scale. The first four interior loads are covered here. These releases generally sold out very quickly (in the case of the reprints, much faster than the original releases) so MTL has been continuing the practice since then. I'll let the pictures do most of the talking here.
Here's the car with the doors open to reveal the "load" within.
Removing the shell, we see the load casting in a more or less "natural" resin color. Whatever that is...
The sides are not identical... nice touch. (Focus on this image? Not so nice.) The load attaches to the metal floor of the car with ordinary (but thin) double sided tape. Which got me thinking...
...would this load fit on a forty foot boxcar underframe? Yes! That should increase sales of this as a separate item...
Here's how it looks in a forty foot single door boxcar. No worries here, at least for the steel PS-1! I have also tried it in a wood single sheathed boxcar, but it appears to be a little bit too tall to fit there.
*** April 2006 - Load #2 ***
The 020 00 006 Nickel Plate Road forty foot boxcar reprint of April 2006 was the second boxcar to be sold with an interior load. So of course we had to provide "uncoverage" of that one too! Here's the side that appeared in the MTL portraits.
And here's the opposite side. Kind of a cylindrical looking thing going on here.

I tried this one in an MTL wood sheathed boxcar as well... sorry, still not a fit. The height looked OK on this one but it was still too wide.
*** July 2006 - Load #3 ***
The 020 00 530 Southern Railway forty foot boxcar reprint of July 2006 was the third boxcar to be sold with an interior load. So here's some more "uncoverage!" Here's the side that appeared in the MTL portraits.
And here's the opposite side. The trio of loads next appeared as a separate item from MTL; their Catalog Number 499 43 913 carries an MSRP of $11.95.
*** April 2007 - Load #4 ***
The 031 00 060 Northern Pacific fifty foot boxcar reprint of April 2007 was the fourth boxcar to be sold with an interior load. The load looks like simulated lumber to me from both sides. Here's one...
And here's the other side. There isn't quite as much of a distinction between sides as there was on other loads.
Here is the load "uncovered", side one and side two.