Is the ladder by the door on this boxcar a one-off or were they common?
Brent
"All of the world's problems are the result of the difference between how we think and how the world works."
I'd guess that one to be in MoW service, as there's none of the usual dimensional data to be seen.
It looks like it had originally been a regular trussrod car, but sometime in its life, it also got a steel underframe...a not uncommon upgrade after cars new cars were required to have steel underframes after Jan.1, 1927, and on rebuilt cars, after July 1, 1928. Truss rods were still allowed on cars with composite underframes in 1940, but I don't have the date when truss rods were prohibited from interchange. As far as I'm aware, though, truss rods were never banned outright.
Here are a couple of old MDC boxcars, modified for MoW service. I didn't use the truss rods which came with the kits, instead adding "steel" underframes. I also modified some of the doors, and added windows, along with the necessary sill steps and additional grabirons....
I built this express car...
...to match its prototype, still in existence, starting with a Caboose Industries undecorated kit. The two photos below better illustrate the additional grabirons and steps used on such cars...
Wayne
That boxcar is the one used in the filming of the CBC series "The National Dream" back in 1973. Perhaps the producer had seen ladders in photos during construction in the 1880-1885 period and wanted to include this detail for the show. The car was actually built decades later in 1913, and owed its survival as late as 1973 because it had been demoted to OCS work service. It might have had the ladder added during that phase, especially if it was one of the relics that was actually a stationary storage shed on wheels.
The car still survives, preserved at Heritage Park in Calgary.
John