RAILBOX

[Anonymous]

Are those familar bright yellow cars Rail Box still being made or did some railroad buy them. Also what other kinds of cars are under Rail box other than rail gon.

[dehusman]

Railbox is a subsidiary of TTX and it still exists. Many older RBOX cars were returned to the participating RR's. TT owns lots of various types of flat cars, from plain flats to intermodal cars to heavy capacity flats. As of June they had 16, 441 boxcars, 1179 gons, 52,266 auto carriers, 185,114 intermodal platforms (39, 471 cars) and 27,025 special flats.

Dave H.

[garr]

Vista,

Most of the original Railbox cars that were not returned to the participating RR's are receiving a new paint scheme with the new smaller markings and logo on the yellow body.

Also have been seeing a lot of new TBOX and, I beleive, RBOX(or may be ABOX) which appear to be hi-cube. These cars have the Railbox logo and TTX logo. Both are outside rib cars but the RBOX(or ABOX) cars also have two rows horizontal ribs. These cars were probably constructed in 2002 or 2003.

Jay

[Anonymous]

I still see lots of the old RailBox cars out in the BNSF yard in Vancouver.

It's amazing to see them, they have most certainly all been across the continent a number of times.

I love the slogan....

Next Load Any Road!

[corwinda]

QUOTE: Originally posted by garr

Vista,

Most of the original Railbox cars that were not returned to the participating RR's are receiving a new paint scheme with the new smaller markings and logo on the yellow body.

Also have been seeing a lot of new TBOX and, I beleive, RBOX(or may be ABOX) which appear to be hi-cube. These cars have the Railbox logo and TTX logo. Both are outside rib cars but the RBOX(or ABOX) cars also have two rows horizontal ribs. These cars were probably constructed in 2002 or 2003.

Jay

TBOX cars are 60' plate F cars, the others have FBOX marks and are 50' long. Bothe built 2003 (and into 2004?) I see quite a few of both here in Springfield, OR.

[CShaveRR]

Definitely both TBOX and FBOX cars are being built up to the current time.

Last month (only a week or so ago), I saw the first of a new series of TBOXs come through; the build date was 6/04. They're the first of 1000 cars in the group, so we'll be seeing new ones for a few more months, anyway.

I haven't seen any FBOX cars built since 4/04, but I think that's just my location...I'm pretty sure those are still coming out as well, and somebody who lives or works along a different railroad might be seeing plenty of them.

TTX has also reserved reporting marks IBOX, but as of now I don't know what kind of car those are going to be.

ABOX and large RBOX cars still are plentiful, though some of those have gone to railroads like CN and ATW.

The smaller RBOX cars from the first orders were divided among nine railroads: ATSF, BN, C&O, RF&P, SCL, MP, Southern, SP, and UP. The cars that were operated by SP, UP, RF&P, SOU, and ATSF have gone on to other lessees; some have been rebuilt in various ways (a lot of these cars are now sporting WC paint and plug doors, for example; others have been modified with ventilator systems and increased height for pulp service).

All of the _BOX reporting marks are now assigned to TTX Company; I believe that the Railbox Company (originally the American Rail Box Car Company) as a separate entity has been dissolved. You won't find the "Railbox" lettering on any of the TBOX or FBOX cars, though the "Next Load/Any Road" slogan and logo still survives (despite its susceptibility to a rather lewd corruption).

Carl

[locomutt]

Back in the70's alot of Railbox cars were stored at Stevens Yard,(Silver Grove,Ky.)
on the C&O.When it was still there.I believe most of them were the 50 footers.
I have pictures,somewhere.
As far as reporting marks go, I only remember RBOX.

[CShaveRR]

Until sometime in 2003, all of them were 50-footers!

When I mentioned "large" RBOX cars, I was referring to cubic capacity, which was about 200 cuft greater, due to increased height.

Walt, I hope you can find those photos and the date...I'm wondering whether the RBOX cars you saw might be among the 1000 or so that the C&O obtained. That would have been 1983 or 1984, though.