40 ft High cube boxcar

[fwdguy]

Like the Athearn highcube 40 ft boxcars, what do the real railroads use these for?

I do not see much of these on the rails today. But I have 4 of these on my layout.

Thanks,

Mark

[cefinkjr]

40 ft high cube cars were used for large appliances like washing machines, dryers, and dishwashers. (They may have been used for other lading but I don't know what.) The high cube cars allowed these to be stacked higher than in a standard car.

Why 40 ft instead of 50, 60, or more? I suspect because there wouldn't be many consignees who would receive enough washing machines, etc. in a single shipment to make the larger car justifiable. Even a 40 ft car is going to have a lot of appliances in it.

That traffic now probably moves by truck or container. Which is not to say that it doesn't move by rail, of course.

[cheese3]

QUOTE: Why 40 ft instead of 50, 60, or more? I suspect because there wouldn't be many consignees who would receive enough washing machines, etc. in a single shipment to make the larger car justifiable. Even a 40 ft car is going to have a lot of appliances in it.

I have a 50 ft high cube. I don't know if this was prototypical but it was a gift so i am not complaining [:D]

[Noah Hofrichter]

Hi cubes can also cary paper, I have an industry near me that gets almost all it's paper in 40' high cubes, that or old the occasional 40' regular boxcars.

Noah

[Anonymous]

I have a Great Northern high-cube boxcar for my layout (when it is finished) and I imagine it carries paper or other stackable items.

[jsoderq]

Reason for 40' was spacing of doors on the loading docks. Longer cars would not allow the doors to line up between the car and the factory.

[Anonymous]

What do they put in the 86 foot hi cubes?

[Anonymous]

Auto parts in the 86' Hi Cubes, have one for my layout, long car.
Also have a 60' hicube

[Anonymous]

Is all they carry auto parts? or do they sometimes put other stuff in them?

[Anonymous]

I might be used to carry the same goods as the shorter cars, but I have read that the 86' car was designed by automakers to transfer larger amounts of parts; panels, etc.
Also if 40' is sufficient for appliances, etc, then the 86' is probably too big.
My model is an N scale Santa Fe 86' marked "AUTO PARTS" on the side, I run it with a consist of autoracks.

[cefinkjr]

QUOTE: Originally posted by cheese3

I have a 50 ft high cube. I don't know if this was prototypical but it was a gift so i am not complaining [:D]

I believe those were used for heavier auto parts. The 85' (86' ?) high cube cars were used for light parts like fenders, door panels, trunk lids, hoods, etc. I'm not sure what would have ridden in the 50 ft cars but it might have been something like wheels that would have broken the back of a longer car.

[#offtopic]
Interesting town name in your location, cheese3. Wonder if there is any relation to some ancestor of mine. There used to be a Fink, TX but I believe it literally disintegrated a few years ago. People just moved away.

Chuck

[cefinkjr]

QUOTE: Originally posted by jsoderq

Reason for 40' was spacing of doors on the loading docks. Longer cars would not allow the doors to line up between the car and the factory.

An excellent reason. I hadn't thought of this one but should have. While working for NYC and later PC, I had occasion to observe several appliance assembly plants in the east and midwest. All of the buildings looked like they had been built no later than 1935 and all had doors spaced for 40' cars. I don't remember any of them having loading docks as such; just the large doors in the brick walls adjacent to their siding.

Chuck

[ericsp]

50' high cube boxcars are very common and haul a wide variety of products.

Some 86' boxcars are finding their way into other services. The Elk Corpation plant (composite roof shingles) at Shafter, CA. has HLMX 86' boxcars (ex-Conrail, with the CR numbers) going to it. I went a tour of the plant in 2002, before these cars started going there. They shipped the shingles out in 50' and 60' boxcars. They told me that glass mat traveled by rail from their Texas plant to LA and trucked up to the plant. I am guessing the glass mat must be what is in those cars. There must be a lot of empty space in that mat.

[Anonymous]

The local pulp mill has been using 86-footers for taking large rolls of paper towels to a plant in Vegas where they cut them into consumer-size rolls. A lot of the cars (including a bunch of the aforementioned HELM leasing ex-Conrail cars) must be in dedicated service, since the same ones keep turning up in the yard over and over...but whether they send them back with anything in them or just empty is still a mystery at this point.

So if you have a paper mill or just a non-specified factory building on your layout, that could serve as another excuse for you to run some 86-footers for something other than auto parts if you want.

[SSW9389]

On the Santa Fe I once saw a 40' Hi cube being used in MOW service.

Also on the Santa Fe the Purina plant in Flagstaff used to get D&TSL 86' Hi Cube for pet food loading ! ! ![8D]

[dknelson]

Some 40 ft hi cubes were built that way, others were standard cars with extentions welded on. They were pretty common circa 1970 when roof walks were eliminated and they could take advantage of the height to ship larger loads.
Most 86 ft hi cubes for auto parts are outfitted with very specific holding devices -- sometimes they have to be modified for auto manufacturer model year changes, they are so specific.
Dave Nelson