MEC Pulpwood flat cars

I've just purchased two of the Atlas GSC pulpwood cars. They're red with "painted in" reporting marks for the MEC (#7711, #7714). I'm told they patterned on ex-D&H cars "sold" to the MEC during the Guilford years. A quick review of Morning Sun's "Northern New England Color Guide......." provides no clues to these cars. I trust that Atlas did their homework/research when deciding to produce them.

So, can anyone advise whether these cars have valid MEC #'s? (If yes: are they ex-D&H and what were the D&H nos.)

(Travelled to Maine via NH/B&M/MEC in '56; when to No. Maine Jct in '03 and rode the "Downeaster" last fall, so have been reintroduced to New England railroading and am shifting my modelling emphesis in a northerly direction!)

Thanks for your help!

If they look something like these then you might have a winner...notice how close the car numbers are, these should be pretty close to prototypcial of what you have.

Photo of pulpwood cars rusting away at a siding in Leeds, ME:

http://photos.nerail.org/search/searchr ... ODE=&POYE=

The numbers tie to the info i have. atlas does a good job with car #s and the like.

The Atlas cars represent ex-D&H cars that were sold to MEC in the early 1980's, probably as part of the deal that sent the 15(?) D&H U23B's to MEC Also. This was part of an effort to bring much-needed cash to the D&H before Guilford purchased it in 1984. The MEC, B&M and D&H had pool-power agreements starting in 1981 or '82, so although the U-Boats were re-lettered for MEC, they were still used by the D&H, as well as MEC and B&M power.
The last shipments of pulpwood on the MEC were in 1996, I believe, so many of the cars were put in storage and probably scrapped, as Guilford went on a massive scrapping spree in the early 1990's, cutting up hundreds of freight cars and locomotives that were sitting unused all over the system.

The Atlas cars represent cars that came to the MEC in 1964-65 when Internationl Paper opened the mill at Rileys. They were originally built for the C&O. I'm guessing they were actually owned by IP and leased to the railroads noted, since they served IP mills on each the C&O, D&H and MEC. That is just a theory though. They are spot on and the numbers are correct.

NYC27 wrote:The Atlas cars represent cars that came to the MEC in 1964-65 when Internationl Paper opened the mill at Rileys. They were originally built for the C&O. I'm guessing they were actually owned by IP and leased to the railroads noted, since they served IP mills on each the C&O, D&H and MEC. That is just a theory though. They are spot on and the numbers are correct.

Are you talking about the ex- D&H cars, with the name painted over, and COTS stencils? These cars came to the MEC much later than1964-65. Early 80's.