Southern Pacific Lines B-50-28/-29 Postwar AAR Box Cars (including St. Louis Southwestern)

 

This is a particularly interesting photo with no less than three of the B-50-28/-29 box cars visible: T&NO 61062 (left center), SP 102260 (behind and left) and unknown SP/T&NO behind the PRR X43B at center. The SP Lines car to the left of SP 102260 is a sibling B-50-27 class box car. Columbus, GA, ca. 1958, image CG-2590, Central of Georgia Railway Historical Society, courtesy of Allen Tuten

Like many of you, I am eagerly awaiting my order from Tangent for these exciting new box cars. I ordered a couple of undecorated kits. As soon as I receive them, I will provide a follow on post with my thoughts about what's in the box, as well as how it compares to the old Sunshine kits, which were not without their errors. In future, I will post a third part after building a couple of the cars, but that will be a few months away. As a prelude, I present some data about the B-50-28 and -29 classes.

In 1950-1951, the Southern Pacific and Texas & New Orleans received a total of 3,000 and 1,500 class B-50-28 box cars, respectively, from Pullman-Standard. At the same time, SP-affiliated line St. Louis Southwestern (the Cotton Belt) received 100 identical box cars. In 1951, the SP also built 500 identical box cars in the Sacramento shops that were assigned to class B-50-29 (SP only.) The accompanying tables provide the details about all cars.

SSW 33938 was one of the 100 clones of the B-50-28 received by the Cotton Belt from Pullman-Standard in 1951. Note the "short" panel at the top and the wider panel (third from top) on the Superior door. Fayetteville, NC, October 12, 1952, Col. Chet McCoid photo, Bob's Photo

The cars continued the large scale program by the SP Lines to bolster its box car fleet in the postwar period. There is a direct line from the B-50-24, -25, -26 and -27 classes to the -28 and -29. Given the period of the cars' construction, there were evolutionary changes along the way.

At delivery, Texas & New Orleans B-50-28 no. 60049 included the '&' in the reporting marks and "SOUTHERN PACIFIC" spelled out above the reporting marks. Illinois Digital Archives, Pullman History site

This group of cars followed the AAR design standards of the era, including recently introduced underframe where the crossbearers were shaped to pass below the four floor stringers (previous versions of the underframe had straight crossbearers and the stringers terminated on both sides of the crossbearers.) In SP fashion, the box cars maintained the inside height of 10'0", six inches less than the 10'6" that most other roads had standardized on by that time. Instead of having ten evenly sized panels on the sides, these SP cars had eight evenly spaced panels with two narrower ones on either side of the door openings. The Improved Dreadnaught ends were as noted in the photo caption below. Murphy diagonal panel roofs were standard on all of the cars in these classes. Hand brakes and running boards varied as noted in the accompanying tables. Interestingly (for the SP,) all 5,000 of the B-50-28 and -29 were equipped with ASF A-3 Ride Control trucks.

Build data is tabulated below. All Lot numbers are Pullman-Standard, except where noted as SPE, which indicates built by Southern Pacific. For the Cotton Belt cars (nos. 33850-33949), all 100 used Superior doors, Universal hand brakes and Morton running boards and brake steps.

Reporting Marks	Series	Qty.	Lot	Class
SP	102100-103599	1500	5967	B-50-28
SP	103600-104099	500	SPE	B-50-29
SP	104100-105099	1000	5982	B-50-28
SP	105100-105599	500	8001	B-50-28
T&NO	59750-60249	500	5967	B-50-28
T&NO	60250-61249	1000	8001	B-50-28

Reporting Marks

Series

Qty.

Lot

Class

SP

102100-103599

1500

5967

B-50-28

SP

103600-104099

500

SPE

B-50-29

SP

104100-105099

1000

5982

B-50-28

SP

105100-105599

500

8001

B-50-28

T&NO

59750-60249

500

5967

B-50-28

T&NO

60250-61249

1000

8001

B-50-28

The B-50-28 employed an Improved Dreadnaught end with a couple distinctive traits: the narrow rectangular stiffening rib at the top of the end and the "flat" horizontal bottom of the main top rib on the end. Illinois Digital Archives, Pullman History site

The specialties applied to the B-50-28 and -29 are as follows:

Reporting Marks	Series	Hand Brake	R/B & B/S	Doors
SP	102100	Miner	Apex Tri-Lok	Superior
SP	102101-102599	Miner	Apex Tri-Lok	Youngstown
SP	102600-103099	Champion	Apex Tri-Lok	Youngstown
SP	103100-103599	Equipco	Morton	Youngstown
SP	103600-104099	Ajax	Apex Tri-Lok	Youngstown
SP	104100-104224	Miner	US Gypsum	Youngstown
SP	104225-104599	Miner	Apex Tri-Lok	Youngstown
SP	104600-104849	Champion	Apex Tri-Lok	Youngstown
SP	104850-105099	Equipco	Apex Tri-Lok	Superior
SP	105100-105299	Miner	Morton	Superior
SP	105300-105549	Champion	Morton	Superior
SP	105550-105599	Universal	Morton	Superior
T&NO	59750	Miner	Apex Tri-Lok	Youngstown
T&NO	59751-60249	Miner	Morton	Superior
T&NO	60250-60374	Universal	Morton	Youngstown
T&NO	60375-60449	Universal	US Gypsum	Youngstown
T&NO	60450-60749	Equipco	US Gypsum	Youngstown
T&NO	60750-61149	Miner	Kerrigan	Youngstown
T&NO	61150-61249	Superior	Kerrigan	Youngstown

 

SP 105054 employed an Equipco power hand brake and Apex Tri-Lok running boards and brake step. Illinois Digital Archives, Pullman History site

T&NO 60299 was equipped with a Universal power hand brake and Morton running boards and brake step. Illinois Digital Archives, Pullman History site

T&NO 59951 was repainted eight years after delivery in an entirely different scheme, with large "SOUTHERN PACIFIC" name and no SP medallion. Note that the placard board was moved to a lower location on the door. Fayetteville, NC, Nov. 27, 1959, Col. Chet McCoid photo, Bob's Photo

When repainted, Cotton Belt cars received a stencil at the upper left of the end that identified paint, location, and date, as shown here

References:

• Ed Hawkins, "10'0" IH Postwar 40'6" A.A.R. Box Cars," Railway Prototype Cyclopedia 8
• Anthony Thompson, Southern Pacific Freight Cars Volume 4: Box Cars (revised edition) 

IF YOU SEE ANY ERRORS IN THE DATA PRESENTED HEREIN, THEY ARE SOLELY MINE AND I WOULD REQUEST THAT YOU KINDLY LET ME KNOW IN THE COMMENTS SECTION BELOW! Thank you