pennsy round roofs

[Anonymous]

I have a bowser 40 foot pennsy round roof boxcar kit, were the roofs on these cars red or covered with some asphault coating(black I guess)? and didn't an AAR rule state all interchange cars have metalroofwalks by'58-'61, some time frame like that? Thanks in advance,Mike

[ndbprr]

yes most were black. Don't forget they also mandated removal of roof walks around 1970 or so. Mine all came with roofwalks.

[orsonroy]

Pennsy boxcar roofs were freight car color, NOT black. The Pennsy didn't use Asphaltum on their box car roofs.

Check out Keystone Modeler #17, page 33, for a good overhead shot of several Pennsy boxcars. All are dirty, but none are black:
http://www.prrths.com/Keystone%20Modeler/Keystone_Modeler_PDFs/TKM%20No.%2017%2012-04%20PDF.pdf

As for metal roofwalks, NEW cars after 1957 or so had to be built with metal walks. Existing or REbuilt cars could still have wood walks. Roofwalks were eliminated from NEW cars in 1967 or so, and from ALL interchange cars by 1985 (although I saw a few s late as 2000).