A quick look at how to model the freight equipment of the Canada Southern in HO and O scales.   I've only covered the 1941-1976 era since this is the era with the most information available. I only have very basic information on the early wood equipment prior to the 1940's, so do not have enough information to base models on. A few of the older wood boxcars survived into the early 1940's. Dry transfers for all steel Canada Southern freight cars are available - produced by CDS Lettering. CDS Lettering is retiring from business - so some sets are running in short supply and may be sold out. The good news is that there are decal versions coming in 2011 for most of the CASO freight cars. You can purchase these by visiting my business website or email me directly. Clover House and Art Griffin offer lettering sets for the early wood boxcars.     Structures PELTON TOWER HO scale: Brand new ( February 2009) laser cut wood kit for Pelton tower from a new company called Imagine That Laser Art Products. Only contact I have at the moment is their email address at: imaginethat@xplornet.com. Price is $28 + shipping and taxes.   40' Steel Boxcars HO scale: Exact match - Westerfield kit #7953. The Westerfield kit is a flat cast resin kit that requires above average skills to assemble. Not recommended for those with little kit assembly experience. However - Westerfield has retired - so finding one of these kits may not be easy. Hopefully, someone will continue production sometime in the future.   Possible 'close enough stand in model'. Red Caboose X-29 boxcars are close in dimensions. Get the kit with dreadnaught ends. Though this car is not very accurate, it's overall height and general appearance may be close enough for most modellers not wanting to tackle the Westerfield kit.   Lettering notes: The Westerfield kit comes with decals, however the length of the CANADA SOUTHERN RY. lettering is very short and condensed in the early runs - not sure if the later ones were corrected or not. CDS Lettering has dry transfer set #654 available produced from railroad drawings.   O scale: No match, so a low height car (Weaver X-29) could be used as a starting point.   Dry transfer lettering set: CDS Lettering has set #654 available in N, HO, S, O & G scale - though CDS is retiring and some sets are now in very short supply. Decals:: Aberdeen Car Shops has a decal for the boxcars in HO scale - CASO-8701.   Older Wood Boxcars Though I have very little detailed information on the Michigan Central/Canada Southern wood boxcars that operated from 1880 to the early 1940's. There are a couple of NYC and MCRR wood boxcar kits from Silver Crash Car Works that are correct. Clover House offers a dry transfer to cover these cars. The set number is #7568-01 and is available in N, HO, S and O scales.       Flat Cars HO scale: Nearly exact match: Railworks Rutland flat car. The Railworks model is close to being correct, though the shape of the stake pockets and the positions of the grab irons on the sides and ends of the car and not exact matches. The closest plastic model is the Athearn 40' flat car. The only major change required is to remove the end brakewheel stand and replace it with a simple upright brakewheel. This will give you a fairly reasonable model with little effort. Style of the stake pockets and the location of the grab irons will also need to be looked at if you want a more accurate model. Red Caboose kit may be higher quality than the Athearn car, but has the wrong number of side stake pockets. O scale: Though not 100% correct, the old Atlas car or the currently available Red Caboose flat could be used with CDS Lettering dry transfers for the lettering.   Dry transfer lettering set: CDS Lettering has set #773 available in N, HO, S, O & G scale - though CDS is retiring and some sets are now in very short supply. Decals:: Aberdeen Car Shops has a decal for the flatars in HO scale - CASO-8702.     Covered Hoppers There are two distinct covered hoppers on the CASO. The early cars were converted USRA twin hoppers that simply had new slope sheets and a roof applied. These could be modelled using either the Accu-Rail twin hopper or the Tichy USRA twin hopper. Scratchbuilding the roof would be required. The three later style covered hoppers (880151-880153) can be modelled by two different kits. HO scale: Exact match: Central Hobby Supply NYC despatch shops covered hopper. This kit has been re-released by Funaro & Camerlengo. This is a flat resin kit and requires above average modelling skills to complete. Very poor instructions, so you should be familiar with the cars before tackling one of these. A low quality kit is available from Eastern Car Works. This is a flat plastic kit that can be assembled fairly easily, though getting the ends to mate with the sides can be quite a challenge. The details and proportions of the Eastern Car Works car are not correct. CDS Lettering set #775 is the correct lettering set for both styles of cars.   O scale: No exact match for the despatch covered hopper. However, I'm not sure if the Central Hobby Supply Despatch Covered hopper was offered in O scale or not. I know it was offered in S scale, if it was available in O, then this is the way to go, otherwise a Weaver car could be used as a starting point for the despatch car. The older USRA twin hopper conversions could be built using the excellent InterMountain USRA twin hopper and scratchbuilding the roof.   Dry transfer lettering set: CDS Lettering has set #775 available in N, HO, S, O & G scale - though CDS is retiring and some sets are now in very short supply.     Hoppers There are two styles of open top three bay hoppers. The 3000-3999 series cars were ex-P&LE cars and are 3 bay offset panel side cars. The 900000-922399 and 68000-74049 series cars are ex-NYC and ex-P&LE three bay 14 panel rib side hoppers.   HO scale: The exP&LE offset cars can be modelled with ease in HO with the Stewart (now Bowser) 3 bay offset hopper kit and CDS Lettering has dry transfer set #752. The 900000-922399 and 68000-74049 series cars are also easy to model in HO with the Stewart (now Bowser) 14 panel NYC rib side hopper. CDS Lettering has dry transfer sets for both the 68000-74049 exP&LE cars (set #753) and the 900000-922399 exNYC cars (set #754). Recently - Bowser offered the offset hopper car lettered for Canada Southern   O scale: These two different cars can also be modelled easily in O scale using the Weaver cars of the same types as the HO cars along with the CDS Lettering dry transfers.   Dry transfer lettering set: CDS Lettering has set #752, 753 and 754 available in N, HO, S, O & G scale - though CDS is retiring and some sets are now in very short supply.