Outside Braced Boxcars

[wd45]

Just wondering if anyone knew when the last of these were used in revenue service and who were the last roads to use them. I'm modeling the 1970's, and would like to include a few in my rolling stock.

Thanks!
Mike

[ericsp]

I am not sure what you are referring to. Exterior braced boxcars (also known as rib side) are still being built.

[wd45]

Sorry about that. The ones I mean contained outside ribs over wood.

Mike

[ericsp]

Oh. I have no clue about that.

[dehusman]

Single sheathed cars is what you are talking about. Most were built between world wars, so most were retired or rebuilt by the 1960's. In a ORER, the are sometimes listed as "composite" cars (as opposed to all steel).

Dave H.

[IRONROOSTER]

You could have a few that are not in revenue service. Old boxcars sometimes hang around for a long time. I still see steel PRR boxcars occaisionally - pretty rusty and probably forgotten.
Enjoy
Paul

[orsonroy]

A very VERY few hung on until about 1980 or so, mostly with roads like the Soo, Milwaukee, and CB&Q, which had thousands of 'em. By 1970, they were pretty rare, and mostly hanging on in menial jobs like hide or coke service. Check the Fallen Flags site for the above roads, and you'll find a few color shots of single sheathed boxes from the late 1960s (it SEEMS like the most common by then were the CB&W 50-foot SS cars, which can be represented by the Roundhouse kit).

[dknelson]

My guess is that they were still common in the 1950s, getting rare by the 1960s, and decidedly rare by the 1970s.

I saw some in work train service in Canada (CP in the Rockies) in the 1980s. I remember seeing some in tannery (hide) service in the late 1960s and presumably they continued into the early 1970s at least (I was in college by then and could not check the tannery siding any more!). Hide service was sort of the the last refuge for boxcars before they became scrap.

An ad in a Railway Age from the mid 1960s showed a refurbished Green Bay & Western outside braced car and the ad copy indicated that with the rebuilding it would be good for many more years of service. But I have never traced the number in Equipment Registers to see if that was the case. My recollection is that in the 70s or 80s a rule change (following a wreck due to a cracked wheel) dealing with car wheels came through (the origin if memory serves of the black box with yellow dot painted on the sides of older cars back then) and that caused the pre-mature retirement of lots of cars.
Dave Nelson

[mvlandsw]

The Wellsville, Addison, & Galeton RR had some in interchange service into the seventies. They were even modernized by removing the roofwalks. C&NW also had some that were rebuilt with steel sheeting in place of the wood sides. I'm not sure how long they lasted but they were around in the late 1960's.

[wd45]

Thanks everyone for the info. I looked on the fallen-flags site and saw a couple of CB&Q, and also saw some of Northern Pacific from the late 1960's, as well. I asked the original question because I recall seeing an early 1970's photo awhile back of a Milwaukee Road train that had a couple on it, but I had thought they had all gone out of revenue service in the 1960's. Also, I believe on the fallen flag site, I saw a couple of photos of open hoppers (40'?) with wooden sides lettered for Chessie. Any idea how long they ran?
Thanks!
Mike

[GN-Rick]

A good rule of thumb to keep in mind is the FRA 40-year interchange rule
which states, briefly, that any rolling stock over 40 years old is no longer legal
to interchange between railroads. Therefore, except for a few very rare cars
in either company or captive, on-line service, 40 years old is pretty much
the age limit. I model the GN and so am always looking for old cars from
that road and few are to be seen 35 years after the BN merger except
some Gunderson 60 foot woodchip gons in the Sky Blue Scheme in
captive paper mill service here in the Northwest.