Not too long ago I picked up these three vintage models, all decorated (very simply) as Belline.

Who was the builder?

I have no idea. I’d like to imagine it was someone named Bell, but, writing this article I did a quick search. The word Belline relates to a set of 53 oracle cards that was published in 1961. I’m hoping just a coincidence? I’m thinking these cars were built before 1961, but you never know. For sure the road name does not have much of a railroad ring to it.

The utility flat

This is probably the most interesting car of the group, it is a rarely seen Graceline or Transportation Models utility flat. The car looks like it might be heavy but it is not, the load is made of paper straws.

This model and the other two don’t have car numbers or small lettering of any sort. A choice of the builder.

The gondolas

There are also two gondolas. This first one was built up nicely using the Picard gondola body.

This second one is based on the Ulrich HO “war emergency” gondola. This has been done a number of times in OO, this article showcasing a few more examples.

The model is semi-scale really, certainly under scale for OO. I replaced the trucks with the Tyco based trucks I use on my “underscale fleet” of cars. Although I may switch it back to Scale-Craft trucks, as I’m not very likely to operate this model.

Bonus: Another Ulrich based model

With those cars was also this one by the same builder, but thankfully not lettered Belline. I touched up the paint and worked up from an alphabet set and scraps ATSF decals that are probably 85% correct. It is lightly weathered as well. Certainly much more plausible visually than the Belline cars.

This car will see layout service for sure with the under scale models. I’ve got another under scale car ready to paint; when it is rolling I’ll likely switch the layout over to those models, which operate really nicely.