CStPM&O 40' Fowler Box Car

This is another throwback Thursday car I am revisiting from my "Essential Freight Cars" days of the 2000s. The subject car shown above is a Westerfield kit. I have always been drawn to this prototype because of its character. A single sheathed car with a board roof that soldiered on into the early 50s is a gem by nature. I like it so much that I bought another kit and plan to scratchbuild sides, ends, and a roof with board-by-board construction and mate them to the kit underframe. Effectively weathered, I am certain it will be a head turner. It didn't hurt that I stumbled across the photo of one in Ashland, Oregon circa the very late 1940s, shown at bottom. The details about the model shown above can be found in the Railroad Model Craftsman article about the forty-foot box cars built under the Fowler patent.

The car shown above was photographed under the auspices of the FSA-OWI and, fortunately for us, was recorded with large format color transparency film.

This photo is another FSA-OWI collection image. It highlights the character inherent in the wood board roof. Combined with the fancy '400' slogan, it makes for a winning combination.

Tucked behind the SP Baldwin AS-616 in this image at Ashland, Oregon was one of the subject cars, heavily weathered circa the late 1940s.

The Chicago, St. Paul, Minneapolis & Omaha rostered 1,500 of these forty-foot cars built under the Fowler Patent. There were 1,500 cars, built in 1915, in the series 31200-34198, even numbers. By late 1951, there were only 190 in service. These cars, along with the sister CNW cars, can be replicated using the Westerfield 4400-series kits