RBOX railbox in service, sold, or scrapped.

[Andrew Falconer]

I have only seen a few RBOX railbox box cars in service in the past year.

Who has seen in person the railbox cars being sold and repainted for leasing companies or seen them being scrapped?

Thanks for the replies.

[BaltACD]

Andrew Falconer

I have only seen a few RBOX railbox box cars in service in the past year.

Who has seen in person the railbox cars being sold and repainted for leasing companies or seen them being scrapped?

Thanks for the replies.

RBOX is a reporting mark for Trailer Train, which is in business and is jointly owne by the Class 1 carriers.  They also use FBOX & TBOX - I haven't researched to see which types of box cars fall in to which reporting mark.

[Leo_Ames]

Doubt too many have been scrapped. As it is, newbuilds generally aren't keeping up with attritrion to meet demand for quite a few years now.

So it should largely only being those that fall afoul of the age rule that have gone, which rules out even the oldest of the Railbox fleet for a few more years yet. 

[Andrew Falconer]

Perhaps more of the railroads have been taking them back like the ABOX railbox box cars that went to Canadian National.

Andrew

[tree68]

I still see them from time to time, including some in paint that looks fairly new.

Someplace in my files I have an image of a large number of RailBox cars stored in Watertown, NY.  That's from the early 80's.   What goes around, comes around. 

[CShaveRR]

I don't think there has been any en masse scrapping of the Railbox cars.  But you'll notice that most of the modern box cars in service are 60-footers with high roofs and one or two plug doors.  There isn't much call for the traditional old RBOX cars any more.  

Of the original 12,000 or so RBOX cars, built in 1974-1976 (plate B, go-anywhere, single-sliding-door cars), there are about 123 left (as of the most recent issue of the Official Railway Equipment Register).  In 1984, to stave off bankruptcy, most of these smaller cars were returned to their leinholders (that's when you'd see lots of cars in Railbox paint lettered ATSF, BN, C&O, SBD, Southern, SP, RF&P, and UP).  Most of those railroads returned the cars to GE, after which you'd see them lettered for a number of smaler lines.  But you'd also see some that were rebuilt, with everything from ventilator systems to cushion underframes to plug doors to higher roofs (often combinations of these things), and it might be very surprising to some folks just where they are and what they look like.  

Keep in mind that these oldest RBOX cars are right around 40 years old, after which they'll be banned from interchange service (there are exceptions, but these cars were pretty much in low demand already, so I doubt that the life-extending rebuilding was granted them).


The next group of Railbox cars were built around 1979...these were six inches taller, Plate C cars, and came in the sliding-door variety (RBOX) and the combination plug-siding-door variety (ABOX).  There are 5808 RBOX and 732 ABOX cars left in service, out of <14000, and 2450 cars built, respectively.  As mentioned by someone, CN got about 3000 of these in the mid-1980s.  But I know of no major sell-offs other than those, and assume that these cars might be getting the torch.

This is how things remained until 2003, when the first of 3222 FBOX cars and 12,035 TBOX cars were built over the next ten years or so.  Most of these are still in service, though a small bath of TBOX cars were sold off.  The distinction, by the way, is that FBOX cars are 50-foot high-roof cars with single plug doors, and TBOX cars are 60-foot high-roof cars with double plug doors.  Current totals are 3191 FBOX and 11,814 TBOX cars.  Three more TBOX cars appear to have been relettered CBOX (the definition of this reporting mark is not yet published).

Next episode, starting in 2012, were the secondhand cars acquired by TTX from many operators, conforming for the most part to either TBOX or RBOX specs.  There are some of these (286) lettered TBOX and distinguishable only by number series and paint scheme.  There are also 364 60-foot cars lettered TOBX (single plug door), and 303 50-footers (smaller plug doors) lettered TOFX.  These secondhand cars reside in the 887000 (TOFX) and 889000 (TBOX and TOBX)
series.

 

If the cars still don't seem plentiful enough, check the storage lines somewhere.

[Leo_Ames]

I thought that the 40 year interchange rule without rebuilding for an additional 10 years of service only applied to pre July 1974 rolling stock, with it 50 years after that date. 

And I don't think that Canadian National retires 50' and 60' boxcars unless they're damaged or are life-expired without costly reinvestment to rebuild them or with limitations placed on their service.

So I'd be surprised if they're scrapping their acquisitions like you assumed. 

[RME]

CShaveRR

In 1984, to stave off bankruptcy, most of these smaller cars were returned to their lienholders (that's when you'd see lots of cars in Railbox paint lettered ATSF, BN, C&O, SBD, Southern, SP, RF&P, and UP).

Explain to me why I would see "Southern" lettering on a car returned years after merger into Norfolk Southern.  Was that a reflection of some kind of legal status?

[mudchicken]

Because of the lessor agreement paperwork. Eventually they will gather up all the far flung stragglers and renumber them NS in a new class series.  A bunch of the RBOX cars have been around the BNSF Topeka & Alliance shops for this reason.

There are a bunch of the RBOX'es out in eastern Colorado gathered up for bean shipping season right now.(50#bags for shipping beans and white corn overseas.)

 

[CSSHEGEWISCH]

Are you implying that the RBOX cars are barely worth a hill of beans?

[samfp1943]

Carl:

 Over the last year or so, I have noticed some of the yellow Trailer- Train (logoed with their X style markings). These cars appear to be either 'new' cars  or have undergone much work to up-grade. They appear to be 'fresh manufactured from the exterior conditions.  The cars are extended height, and are so marked on their upper ends, they also have double- sliding doors. The trains I have seen them on are mostly in what might be classed as mixed merchandise type consists. The BNSF cars that also populated those same trains are also high cube types that would commonly be loading high cube paper rolls..many of the cars are also of CN ownership, and they all(T-T, CNR and BNSF) seem to run in multi-car blocks in the consists. many of the boxcars seem to have been 'tagged' many times, while most of the T-T cars do not show hardly any 'tagging'.

The line I see most, is a direct shot from the KCK , and Topeka areas to the Southern Transcon here in South Central Ks. 

[CShaveRR]

Leo, I wasn't suggesting that the CNA box cars are being scrapped, rather that the ones remaining as RBOX/ABOX cars have disappeared in amounts that I can't account for.

As for those CN-acquired cars, many of them have been rebuilt into other descriptions (wider plug doors, cushioning, etc.).

Sam, some of the TBOX and FBOX cars still look pretty good (though none of them is younger than two or three years old).  Those are plug-door cars, though.  So far, I haven't seen any of the secondhand cars getting TTX paint.

Sliding doors are almost a thing of the past now.  Even one series of secondhand cars (TOFX 887141-887286), which were rebuilt from the Southern Pacific's newest box cars (286001-286149), had the double sliding doors replaced with a single plug door.

[jeffhergert]

This afternoon I saw two RBOX cars, didn't write down the numbers, in Des Moines.

Over at Marshalltown there are 69 TBOX cars apparently in storage.  Plus one Rail Gon.  They've been there since I started going that direction (off the extra board) in March.  I don't know how long before that.

Jeff 

[ericsp]

I regularly see RBOX boxcars. I think they are still regular visitors to tomato canneries.

[mudchicken]

CSSHEGEWISCH

Are you implying that the RBOX cars are barely worth a hill of beans?

 

On the side of one of the bean warehouses near the CO/KS border at Burlington (Peconic), CO facing I-70 along KYLE RR (CRIP)" Happiness is a crock full of warm beans"...guess they're shipping future happiness?