I'm looking forward to Eric White's article, next month. Ever since I bought Jeff Wilson's book 'Modern Freight Cars', I have read-up especially about Hoppers & Boxcars. Jeff's book has become a major source of reference for me.
Seems I have inadvertantly purchased used models, some of which are slightly OOD for a 2010-2015 layout. More suited to the Disco era.
My main bugbear is Boxcars with peaked roofs. There still seems to be plenty around on YouTube vids, but I now know that Hi-cube Plate F cars are what my MRR requires. Jeff's book mentions some Boxcars that have been rebuilt into Hi-cubes and I just wondered if any modellers have ever tried this themselves? I realise that this is a long shot, but in the UK, "just sell you old stock and buy some, say Walthers new 60' TTX Box", is not that easy. I'm not too bothered about hyper-accurate Reporting Nos. Paul (Do the Hostle)
"It's the South Shore Line, Jim - but not as we know it".
Lazers My main bugbear is Boxcars with peaked roofs. There still seems to be plenty around on YouTube vids, but I now know that Hi-cube Plate F cars are what my MRR requires.
My main bugbear is Boxcars with peaked roofs. There still seems to be plenty around on YouTube vids, but I now know that Hi-cube Plate F cars are what my MRR requires.
Note that freight cars have a 40 to 50 year life span in interchange service (40 years for cars older than July 1974, 50 years July 1974 or newer, and there are some allowances for major rebuilding).
So quite a lot of late 1970s built boxcars with peaked roofs are still running out there today amongst the flat-roofed Plate F high cube cars of the nineties+.
Lazers Jeff's book mentions some Boxcars that have been rebuilt into Hi-cubes and I just wondered if any modellers have ever tried this themselves?
Jeff's book mentions some Boxcars that have been rebuilt into Hi-cubes and I just wondered if any modellers have ever tried this themselves?
While I can definitely give a number of interesting examples this is actually relatively uncommon. (And these rebuilds generally raised the existing roof so maintain a peaked, not flat, roof unless the original roof was already flat).
Slightly more common are old 10'6"IH Plate B cars from the mid 1970s with a 6" roof raise to a standard 11'IH Plate C.
Standard boxcar sizes in service today are basically:
50' Plate C, usually with 10' sliding doors but other door arrangements exist
50' Plate F, usually with a 10-12' single plug door
60' Plate F, usually with double 8-10' plug doors
The majority of the Plate C cars were built in the 1970s. Both sizes of Plate F cars are basically standard production today.
Chris van der Heide
My Algoma Central Railway Modeling Blog
My own addendums here:
For some reference reporting marks:
50' Plate C, usually with 10' sliding doors but other door arrangements exist - RBOX with the sliding single door, ABOX with the combo doors
50' Plate F, usually with a 10-12' single plug door - FBOX plug doors
60' Plate F, usually with double 8-10' plug doors - TBOX plug doors
While watching the railcam at Santa fe Jct in KC, Mo I have notice a lot of Santa Fe and BN freight cars mostly covered hoppers a long with a small splash of BN boxcars.
Another oddity was badly faded ACF covered hopper that had a PRR keystone barely visible.
Larry
Conductor.
Summerset Ry.
"Stay Alert, Don't get hurt Safety First!"
Hi Larry, it is amazing what can still turn up. Recently, watching footage from 2018, East Chicago - a 60' Flat roof Boxcar rolled by in Conrail livery.
Chris and Nittany Lion, thanks for putting into single sentences, the Plate Code info. Paul
Hi Chris and Nittany Lion, just to add abit more, I was watching a vid on the Tube and at 15 minutes in - there is a Peak-roof Boxcar, excess height, with white top stripe(s) It has (in my opinion) been rebuilt to Plate F. Beyond that is a blue/grey Boxcar again Peak-roof, no white stripes, definatly looks rebuilt to excess height but with the original door and top runner intact. This proves as you wrote, that some Boxcars rebuilt to E/height was done by literally raising the roof. It does give scope for modifying models within the 'prototype for anything' category . The footage is 2015 and as you mention, there are still plenty of 50' Plate C's
I have been pestering UK Dealers, but at the moment, the only way I am going to get any of the new Walthers 60' TBOX cars, is to import them myself from a Dealer in the USA. Paul
One more thing.. In the late 70's you couldn't swing a Louisville Slugger in a yard without hitting several IPD short line or Railbox boxcars.
That had to be one of the most colorful era in railroading.
There was a very interesting article in Trains magazine within the last several months about boxcars - about how there is still boxcar traffic but the boxcar fleeet is being retired faster than new ones are being built to replace. So with rare exceptions the boxcars we see are getting a bit long in the tooth and look it.
When it comes to a railcar fleet, sometimes things happen very quickly: when highway trailers got longer suddenly the original late 1950s 75 ft TOFC flatcars were pretty quickly phased out or given more general duties. The same thing happened, perhaps less drastically, to 85 ft flats once the 89 footers were needed for the newly longer trailers.
Usually though things move slower than that. When I started to pay attention to freight cars in the late 1960s there were few enough wood cars that they were remarkable - now and then a single sheathed boxcar in hide service, some ice bunker reefers were still wood, and maybe most surprisingly of all some of the 1940s war emergency two bay hoppers of the CB&Q were still seen with wood sides serving a local and small power plant.
Ditto for tank cars. Most tank cars by the late 1960s were long, welded, and generally lacked center sills. But there were still plenty of riveted 8000 and 10,000 gallon tank cars that looked pretty much like what you would have seen during WWII.
Sometimes the challenge for the modeler is not so much avoiding cars that are too old for our era, but avoiding cars that are just a little too new. I know I have bought some ACF centerflow covered hoppers that I now learn are just a few years too new for my cut off date - the cubic capaity is larger than what existed in my era. I also have some cars that are the right era, but came with the Clean Oil Test Stencil (COTS) - those black boxes edged in white in the lower right hand corner of freight cars starting in the early 1970s and (after modifications and changes) ending just a couple of years ago. I can remove the COTS box easily enough I hope, but if the era is too new AND the car has a COTS box I'd probably be better off admitting defeat and selling it to someone.
Since I model more or less 1967 to 1970, I have purchased several of the Car Builder's Cyclopedias to help me make decisions. I have the 1966 Cyc for more or less state of the art modern cars for my era. I have the 1960 Cyc for the run of the mill cars you'd see by the late 1960s. The 1937 Cyc for the oldest (but still fairly numerous) cars. And the 1970 Cyc to tell me - this is too new. I had a 1974 Cyc but rarely consulted it but it was perfect for a buddy who models 1980. I should probably be on the lookout for a 1950s Cyc but those Cycs ain't cheap.
Another great resource, and these are often seen not at model train shows but at "railroadiana" shows, are older issues of Railway Age and other trade magazines. Older issues of Trains magazine used to show "brand new" freight cars too.
Dave Nelson
Hi Dave, thanks for your reply and info. Up until Jeff Wilson's book on Modern Freight Cars, my main reference sources were visual only via Picture Rail Archive or Youtube vids. The main change I have noted in the vids is that over the last 5 years, Hi-Cubes 50' & 60' have taken over from Peak-roof Boxcars. I have been fortunate to aquire 5 No. H/C's and 6 No. Plate C's (15'-6" high) with Flat roofs, but all of varying vintage. The H/C's are as rare as hen's teeth from UK dealers, let alone Ebay UK
I think as well, I like the aesthetics of the new Walthers TTX Tbox Cars. They just look nice and modern. Paul
The boxcar mix definitely depends on where you are and what the commodity mix is. One line can have a mix of cars and another line next to it can have a totally different mix.
For example the MP and SSW lines through Pine Bluff. The MP side will be heavy on chemical cars and box cars, with unit coal trains north of Pine Bluff and wood chip unit trains to Pine Bluff and unit grain trains through Pine Bluff. The SSW side will have auto parts and intermodal trains, no coal, few grain trains.
Dave H. Painted side goes up. My website : wnbranch.com
dehusman The boxcar mix definitely depends on where you are and what the commodity mix is. One line can have a mix of cars and another line next to it can have a totally different mix. For example the MP and SSW lines through Pine Bluff. The MP side will be heavy on chemical cars and box cars, with unit coal trains north of Pine Bluff and wood chip unit trains to Pine Bluff and unit grain trains through Pine Bluff. The SSW side will have auto parts and intermodal trains, no coal, few grain trains.
Indeed, here in Alexandria VA there's no shortage of boxcars moving through town. But back home in Butler PA I'm pretty sure that the last time a boxcar went through town was when Pullman-Standard was building them.
Watching various railcam locations one can safely say the boxcar is alive and well in some areas and in short supply in others.
I been watching a Rochelle rail cam and there is no shortage of boxcars on the U.P. Some of the road names included SSW and SP with their recording marks. Also noted was lots of Railbox, TTX and GATX boxcars.. I saw a new one (at least to me) RRTX 50' paper boxcar..This was in a Eastbound train consist.
I watch around 30 hours of various railcam locations weekly and am never surprise as far as seeing boxcars or old fallen flag cars.. Today I saw a old worn, faded and rusty exMP covered hopper still plying the rails for a lease company. You could barely make out the MP emblem.
The last few weeks there have been growing lines of stored box cars around the Missouri Valley-Omaha/Council Bluffs-Fremont area. Mostly TBOX and FBOX Railbox cars. Missouri Valley also has a couple tracks of reefers in storage. Many of them are getting close to their age limit.
A co-worker the other day said a local manager said the railroad was thinking about storing cars on one of the main tracks between Fremont and Valley.
Jeff
Jeff, Speaking of reefers, I still see a great number on some rail cams while they are a oddity on others.
While watching various cams I have notice very few general purpose flat cars..
I'm finally sitting down to read Part 1, and I've noticed an error on the first page.
Stock cars were still in service into the 1990s, not gone by the '70s as Eric states. There were hogs moving by rail to the east on Penn Central and Conrail, and out west on the UP, too. Yes, it was a dying service, but it only had 6 or 7 wheels in the scrap heap, not all 8! LOL
Mykhalin I'm finally sitting down to read Part 1, and I've noticed an error on the first page. Stock cars were still in service into the 1990s, not gone by the '70s as Eric states. There were hogs moving by rail to the east on Penn Central and Conrail, and out west on the UP, too. Yes, it was a dying service, but it only had 6 or 7 wheels in the scrap heap, not all 8! LOL
My resources show Penn Central class K9a and K9b Stock car was totally removed from the roster by April 1972. The photo shown says it was taken in August 1970. I am reading Part 2 now. I can't wait for Part 3 to hit the selfs.
PC101 Mykhalin I'm finally sitting down to read Part 1, and I've noticed an error on the first page. Stock cars were still in service into the 1990s, not gone by the '70s as Eric states. There were hogs moving by rail to the east on Penn Central and Conrail, and out west on the UP, too. Yes, it was a dying service, but it only had 6 or 7 wheels in the scrap heap, not all 8! LOL My resources show Penn Central class K9a and K9b Stock car was totally removed from the roster by April 1972. The photo shown says it was taken in August 1970.
My resources show Penn Central class K9a and K9b Stock car was totally removed from the roster by April 1972. The photo shown says it was taken in August 1970.
Conrail did haul stock cars on TV trains. These cars was 86' long "steer palaces" and was marked IIRC Cattle Car Leasing Company. This service ended in or around 1990.