Does anybody make an Ho Scale End Door Auto Boxcar with Positional or Operational Doors on one or both ends of the car? I would like to have a spur running to a Loading/Unloading ramp where Automobiles or Trucks and Large equipment could be off loaded through the End of the car. I can find End Door Cars but I dont see where any of them say the doors are positional.
I do not recall any. The potential for this is clouded by what would in the past by the limited strength of plastic for the hinges. And it's a fairly low demand need, much I comletely agree this would be a neat feature, so that would tend to rule out something being done in engineering plastic. But it's the sort of thing that is modelable, if you went with some sort of metal hinge perhaps. Maybe a kitbash of one of the P2K kits?
Mike Lehman
Urbana, IL
I believe auto boxcars only ever had a door at one end--the end without the brake wheel.
I like the idea of working end doors. But I don't know if you NEED them to operate the model trains. Are you REALLY always going to unload cars one by one?
What I'm getting at is that you might want to make one or two cars with the doors fixed open. Without working hinges. I think that would be a lot easier. Myself, I would get two cars, remove the closed doors on one, and use the other to salvage the doors from.
As much as it would be neat to have working doors, it doesn't seem that necessary.
Ed
Maybe it should also be noted that end door "auto" cars were not generally used for the ordinary transport of regular automobiles, but rather for trucks, special equipment, etc.
Before auto rack flat cars, automobiles were mostly transported in double side door 40' and 50' box cars. And after its invention about 1930, most were fitted with the Evans Auto Rack, an interior rack system that allowed 6 autos to be loaded from the side into the 50' car.
In 1954 Evans began building the first open flat car versions of their auto rack, which allowed faster thru end loading, but could still be lowered to allow off loading at regular team track ramps. The old Athearn "blue box" 50' auto rack is a reasonable representation of the Evans flat car - except for the four oversized autos Athearn put on it......but six scale autos do fit......maybe I can take a photo.
So before 1954, most autos were loaded into side door cars from standard height platforms.
Sheldon
Yes Proto2000 made a auto box car kit which has a end door on one end. I've got a up version.
Rio Grande. The Action Road - Focus 1977-1983
Walthers also offered a 50' double door automobile boxcar with optional "A" ends, either plain or with doors:
The hinges are moulded as part of the optional end casting, but the door area is actually only the portion which is encircled by the rivet strip. There is also an undetailed end behind what you see - it has mounting holes for the plugs which are moulded on the back side of the optional ends, and also imparts strenght to the body shell.You could make working doors by using two of the door-type ends (cutting the doors from the end, and then cutting a useable left door from one and a useable right door from the other). You'd need to scratchbuild the fixed portion of the end and the working hinges. Unfortunately, the doors would be overly thick and not detailed on their interior, either. It would be possible to remove the latch and ladder details, etc. from each door piece, and use heavy aluminum foil to "stamp" thinner door panels from the originals, but then you'd need to add scratchbuilt versions of the removed details.
To how much trouble are you willing to go to create that scene?
Wayne
>>So before 1954, most autos were loaded into side door cars from standard height platforms.
So how did they actually put the autos inside?
Henry
COB Potomac & Northern
Shenandoah Valley
BigDaddy>>So before 1954, most autos were loaded into side door cars from standard height platforms. So how did they actually put the autos inside?
chutton01 BigDaddy >>So before 1954, most autos were loaded into side door cars from standard height platforms. So how did they actually put the autos inside? I'm glad you asked that...(as those images of boxcar loading show, some manpower was involved...)
BigDaddy >>So before 1954, most autos were loaded into side door cars from standard height platforms. So how did they actually put the autos inside?
I'm glad you asked that...(as those images of boxcar loading show, some manpower was involved...)
BigDaddy,
Just to be clear, 40' double door auto box cars with Evans racks could carry four large autos - like Cadillacs. 50' cars with Evans racks could carry 6 average cars - like a 1954 Chevy.
Yes, cars were pushed in manually through the side doors, first one end, car rasied up, another under that car. Then the same process on the other end. With a 50' car, the top three cars are loaded first, then the ends, and the center bottom car is effectively "parallel parked" into the center.
The Evans 6 car 50' flat worked the same way as the 50' box car system, but was end loaded, allowing loading and unloading with a simple team track ramp similar to a piggy back flat.
Car makers in the early days were concerned about transit damage, a concern that was realized with the advent of open auto rack flat cars - which interestingly enough did not last long before being closed in.......everything old is new again.
The modern auto rack, while based on a flat car, has become a purpose built box car for automobiles - just bigger and faster to load than in 1933 or 1955.
Would these types of boxcars only carry cars? If not, culd they carry certain carparts?
kasskaboose Would these types of boxcars only carry cars? If not, culd they carry certain carparts?
Generally, the ones wit hthe racks inside only carried cars. Similar cars without the racks would be used to move parts from manufacturing plants to the assembly plant. In fact it was typical for parts unloading to be indoors, with high platforms, just like those used for loading the finished cars. Fork lifts would be driven into the box car to unload pallettized parts. And in some plants, double and tripple track would be served from one platform by lining up the car doors and driving through one car to get the car on the next track.
Thanks Sheldon. I was thinking maybe they drove them.
The Walthers single sheath (outside braced) 50' auto car represented a type used by a number of roads, and a similar model is still available from Athearn (ex-MDC). The Akron Canton & Youngstown RR obtained quite a few ex-Frisco cars of this type, and the AC&Y Historical Society published a very comprehensive article on them in the Spring-Summer, 2015 issue of the group's online magazine. Just Google AC&Y Historical Society and it'll get you there. Full disclosure: I contributed to the article.
I'm not aware of any auto cars that had pass through doors on both ends until the relatively modern era of circus-loading auto carriers. As far as I know, the B end was always a permanently sealed end. Early Evans Auto racks in that era were stowable, so that other commodities could be carried. This affected the interior cubic foot specs. Some early auto cars were built for low clearances and were eventually deemed to have insufficient interior height for continued use in auto service. These cars were often used to carry other commodities, such as furniture, auto parts, and anything else that might best be handled through end doors or wide side doors. Sometimes special racks were installed inside for specialized loads. The Official Railway Equipment Register (ORER) normally would carry notations explaining these mods. The AC&Y cars were often used to carry tires and wheel rims from Akron to Detroit, although they were not restricted to this market.
I seem to recall that there may have been an HO brass auto car model with operating end doors, but I don't remember for certain.
Tom
Don't forget the Proto 2000 50' end door auto box car. Yes, they made those - not sure if Walthers ever re-released them but you should be able to find them at train shows at the very least if you want a model of an end door box car.
I have a brass SP 50' Auto Loading Box Car single sheath from Hallmark produced somewhere between 78-85. It has doors on one end only and double doors on both sides. The brake wheel is at roof level on the non-door end.
riogrande5761 Don't forget the Proto 2000 50' end door auto box car. Yes, they made those - not sure if Walthers ever re-released them but you should be able to find them at train shows at the very least if you want a model of an end door box car.
Here is the Proto 2000 end door auto box car - original parts - as built from the kit: