Santa Fe Waycars (Part 2) - Steam Era 500 and 2201-class cars

Back in June 2017, I posted Santa Fe Waycars (Part 1) of this blog series focusing on the Athearn "Blue Box" Santa Fe Waycars (aka Cabooses, but Santa Fe called them 'waycars' not 'cabooses' for over 100 years) and the 1300-series wooden Walthers Waycars.

Class One Model Work's ATSF 2232 and 506, as they appear out-of-the-box.

Now in June 2026, I've picked up a couple sample Santa Fe Waycars from the new Class One Model Works 500 and 2201-series Waycars.  Class One still has more of on their website at this time of posting...  Also of note, these two models are my first experience from Class One, and I have no affiliation with Class One Model Works.  So this will be my unboxing and first thoughts of the models as Part 2 of this series.

Nice box for these cars.

End view of the boxes of these models.  Working markers... you don't say!  No info as to exactly the era each model is supposed to be modeled as... but we'll get into that later.

The box is nicely finished in glossy cardboard, with magnetic front flap.

Ok, now I get to have trains in their own crates!  It is certainly an interesting asthetic to put on the model's boxes themselves.

The flap opens to reveal a basic drawing of the Santa Fe Waycar, and a window to the model itself.

I rather like the idea of including the magnet flap 'locking' feature, as this will keep the box from getting damaged by the flap getting caught accidentally.

ATSF 506 Waycar inside it's plastic packaging and included magnetic wand.

The car is well protected in the soft plastic wrapper, and the locking hard plastic support material.  Carefully open the end flap at the top left in this photo, and lift the top structure away from the car and the plastic wrapping over it. 

Class One's included 'Magnetic Wand' for switching on and off the electric marker lanterns on these waycars.

The magnetic wand is fit into the packaging below the model for safe keeping.  It would be possible to take the wand with you while running the waycar if you want to turn the markers off while clear of the main track, which was correct for the rules, circa 1951 that I've seen.

Hidden behind the car inside the box is a one-page data sheet.

This is the data sheet for the 500-class models.  Much of this information is also located on their websites for these cars.

The reverse side of the data sheet, with instructions for turning on the marker lights.

One car I ordered is the ATSF 506 and the other car is the ATSF 2232.  Both cars are very nice, I'm impressed by the weight of the model, probably designed to help the contact with the rails to run the lighting systems in the car.   I happened to get cars that had repack and stencil dates for the 1960s. 

Lighted Markers

The track power is needed to charge the marker light capacitors.

Both cars I ordered are the "Wig-Wag" versions.  This version is unique because it has the signaling semaphores on each end of the cupolas and yellow lens in the corner marker lanterns. 

The markers are standard ATSF yellow-yellow-red format, which is correct for my interests on Tehachapi Pass per SP ETT instruction, I'm not sure what the Santa Fe's system-wide standard was.

I'm also very impressed with the length of time the illumination of the markers on these cars lasts.  It seems to last about 5 minutes, although I've not timed the decay time.

Top & Bottom

ATSF 506's roof with corner grab irons on the cupola corners and standard square form roof walks.

Both models have the correct peaked metal roofs, typical of boxcars built during the 1949 era.  Despite the data-sheet's saying these cars were built with wooden roof walks, I believe all cars in the USA built after 1940 were to have metal roof walks, so this 500-class has standard square pattern, which iirc was Apex-type.

ATSF 506's underbody details.

The cars have the correct double brakewheel setup for the underbody rigging for AB-schedule brakes, per 1949 constructed cars.  The Triple-Valve is located on a pedestal, beside one of the tool boxes.  This is a nice touch, as the Athearn BB models I've worked with before, rendered the Triple-Valve between the tool boxes (also those models came with only one box).   Also these cars have see-through mesh on the end steps, which is a nice touch.

ATSF 2232's roof details, including full cupola handrail.

The 2201-class car has Morton roof walk pattern, which have the signature holes for that form of roof walk.  The 2201-class cars also have the full cupola handrails around them, which shows another attention to detail that is different between these two series of cars.

ATSF 2232's underbody details.

The underside of the 2201-class car is basically the same as the 500-class.  I should mention that these cars also have air hoses, and cut levers installed, plus the Kadee-stype knuckle couplers are pre-mounted and do not have magnetic uncoupling pins included.  There are screws retaining the coupler box lids, which is very nice to see.

'Thumb-side' pockets and openings modeled in the coupler, also notice no magnetic uncoupling pin on these cars.

Upon closer inspection of the couplers, I noticed that these Kadee-5 sized couplers (aka full 'over' sized for H0-scale) have the cast in pockets and holes that I've only seen modeled on the Kadee-58-series couplers before, which are smaller head couplers.  So it's nice to see a company outside of Kadee that is catching this little detail.

So... What's the Catch?

So far, I'm very impressed with these models in general...

ATSF 506's side view, tare dates for 7-64.

Unfortunately, as a result both models have the four reflective Santa Fe cross-heralds which post-date my era by at nearly 10 years, not being applied until 1959 according to my information.  The ATSF 506 in this respect is probably the better of the two cars, as the crosses were applied after 1959, and the car's tare info is correct for this... plus it has the fully white handrails and curved boarding rails.

ATSF 2232's side view, 4-22-53 tare date on the repacking data.

However, I haven't seen any pictures of the models on their website that doesn't have these reflective heralds on them.  The ATSF 2232 truly runs afoul of this with it's 4-53 repacking date, which must be updated every 4 months!  It has Mineral Red grabs, which should either be black or freshly painted white per 1953 tare date.  The 1959 crosses are definitely wrong and have to go ASAP.  I may decide to backdate this car to black handrails.

In Closing

These cars do have very nice rendition of the window screens in the lower windows, which could be opened for ventilation.

ATSF 2232 before reworking.

So, I was really hoping one of these models with the "Wig-Wags" which were signatures of the early version would be for proper as-built 1949-1953 era version for the models.  This means I'll probably have to take the heralds off and back-date the later era tare dates to match my era.  Not the worst problem, but slightly annoying for a 'prototype correct' models in the over $100 range.  For those modelers circa 1960+ shouldn't have a problem with these cars out-of-the-box, but I didn't think the 'Wig-wags' went that late... which was superseded by the "-R" Radio equipped cars for the post-1960 version until the 1970's conversion to the all-red CE-series rebuild of these cars.

I'll update this post when I've corrected these models for my 1949-1953 era.

Jason Hill

Related Articles:

Santa Fe Waycars (Part 1) - Steam Era Athearn and Walthers Models - my post from 2017 on kitbashing Athearn and Walthers models for service.