Bill, this was done in the 60¡¯s by Walter Graeff of Ace Model Railroad. He agreed to purchase a ¡°Days¡± run of the injection molding machine, which I think Josh Seltzer told me was 5,000 units. The AF boxcar (PRR X29) with non-opening doors and the 3 bay offset open top hopper were run. Ace then sold these unlettered shells or as kits. Seltzers purchased over a 1,000 of these shells and using Champ decals, CDS dry transfers, and any other letting they could cobble, offered RTR scale and AF compatible cards. They included assembled Ace trucks, bolsters or underframes. AF compatible couplers (I¡¯m thinking Harry Gordon¡¯s) or KD#5s. Josh told me the project manager had not cleared this deal with the higher ups and lost his job over it¡.
Don Thompson