Now Available: 40ft Steel Box Cars

2025 was a year of much effort on MR projects and beyond. Unfortunately, we did not have the practical or mental capacity to offer new products during the year, even though we really wanted to. But we couldn't let 2025 pass us by empty-handed.

40ft Steel Box Cars - Pack 1

Since early September, when we published a significant update on the Illinois Central 2600 Class commission project and also on MR's anniversary, we decided to work on something “simple” that wouldn't take too much time so that we could launch it before Christmas.

The idea came directly from the 40-foot steel Box Cars, a type of freight car standardized by many American railroads that spanned several generations from the mid-1930s to the 1950s when they were still being manufactured. These boxcars were widely used by their original and successor railroads, undergoing a series of modifications and sometimes rebuilt so that they could remain in service without needing to be replaced.

Conrail Variations

6 Conrail units from the transition and absorption era of the railroads, represented in this case by Ex. Erie Lackawanna and Reading, and a variation with the famous Conrail blue paint scheme.

Delaware Variations

Another six units here are represented by Delaware, including Delaware & Hudson and Delaware, Lackawanna & Western. A completely unusual type is the Box Car D&H “Mechanical Dept” painted in this faded light blue tone and, as far as we know, rarely seen. Due to its eccentricity, we have included it in this package.

Erie Lackawanna Variations

There are four EL units represented in the standard brown and brown with black scheme, and we have also included a gray with red variation of the same paint scheme.

Reading Lines Variations

And four other Reading Lines variations represented by two units in the iconic green and two brown units, one of which is the original factory design with only the word “Reading” on one side and “RDG” on the other.

Features

LOD (Level of Detail)

These models have LODs for models with greater 3D mesh detail (higher polygon count). Therefore, smaller details such as rivets or hidden/internal parts will only be seen at a certain distance, much closer to your camera, providing a significant FPS gain.

Twenty Model Variations

• Conrail - 6 units

• Delaware - 6 units

• Erie Lackawanna - 4 units

• Reading - 4 units

Cargo Simulation

Each Box Car has dynamic load simulation, meaning that if you master the TSC editor, you can manually choose which car can be loaded or not. The possibility of adding a 3D load inside the car was considered, since it has an interior, but this idea was discarded, at least for now.

We wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy 2026!

Get your copy now at:

40ft Steel Box Cars - Pack 1 Store Page

Machine Rail Anniversary Month

Between September and October, we celebrate our anniversary, and as usual, we offer a nice discount on all our DLCs available here on our website!

Check out 35%OFF on any item now!

The offer will be available until October 12.

...And let's continue with some updates regarding our current projects in progress:

Illinois Central 2600 Class - Updates

We have been working on this commission since January of this year, and since the last update, we have made significant progress with regard to the locomotive. The 3D modeling has been completely finalized for both the tender and the engine, and all of its parts have received our full attention for hours and hours of work, resulting in significant optimization.

Visual appearance of the 3D mesh in its three main stages of UVW channel mapping and texturing.

Current progress is at the endless stage of external and internal animations of the locomotive, where many hours of work are spent on every detail, whether functional or simply for visual pleasure. Within the next 10 days, we should have all these animations completed, as we have been working on them since the beginning of August.

After all the pieces have received their respective textures, they are exported to the TSC, one by one.

We thought that the first half of 2025 would be calm and more promising so that we could focus most of our time on projects for Machine Rail, but unfortunately, that was not the case. Many things happened outside of the PC and continue to happen due to our professional and personal obligations outside of the computer, which is not a bad thing; but it ended up directly impacting the progress of the projects, and they are slower this year. Now, for the second half of the year, I am particularly feeling some relief from my day-to-day life outside the PC, being able to invest more time in projects that are unfortunately complex and time-consuming, and often things do not turn out as we expected, such as spending the last two weeks trying to solve a compatibility issue with one of the animations we were working on in the ICRR 2600 Class. Now everything is resolved and things are moving forward...

First experimental tests of the locomotive, all parts are already positioned with their respective textures and animations.

To have the locomotive 100% complete in its original form, the following is still needed:

• All animations inside the cab

• Dynamic 2D and 3D numbers

• Internal and external lighting

• Internal and external dynamic sounds

• Engine and tender blueprint specs

• Scripting

• Performance optimization

• Review all and more

There will certainly be more to come, and when we say “original form” of the locomotive, we mean that we will have a variation of the model that will feature some significant and very interesting visual modifications. We still have a lot of work to do in this comission project, as it does not end with the locomotive. As the project progresses significantly, we will bring more updates to everyone.

Rebuilding Sierra Railroad No.3 Bundle

Due to time constraints and our obligation to work on the Illinois Central 2600 Class commission, the Sierra No. 3 Bundle remains on hold.

Sincerely, the Machine Rail team.

Machine Rail's Special Easter Sale

🐰 Enjoy 35% off all our DLC for your Train Simulator Classic! 🐰

The offer is valid from April 13 to 21

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