Santa Fe Bx-34 Modified 1937 AAR Box Car

 

August 5, 1947, PRR siding, Division St., Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, Bob Charles Collection, Kalmbach Memorial Library

I thought a fitting addendum to my previous post would be one highlighting the prototype that was announced, the Santa Fe's Class Bx-34 Modified 1937 AAR box cars. The Santa Fe was the largest owner of Modified 1937 AAR box cars (10'4" to 10'6" inside height and 5/5 Dreadnaught ends, almost exclusively round corner.) The first 1,801 cars, delivered in 1940, were equipped with the Duryea Cushion underframe, like the vast majority of new Santa Fe box and refrigerator cars built in the mid-30s to 1940. The cars were assigned to number series 139500-141300.

Illinois Digital Archives, Pullman History site

The cars received the map scheme, with the first group of cars carrying the "curved" map and the remainder painted with the "straight" map (ATSF 140793 at top sports the curved map while ATSF 140377 directly above carries the straight map*; I could likely be more specific, but my copies of Dobyne's Santa Fe box cars and Hendrickson's Santa Fe freight car painting and lettering books are in boxes somewhere in the house - if you have that info and can post a comment, I will update in the body of the text here. thank you.) The first 1,200 cars received American Steel Foundries spring plankless trucks while the remainder used National Type B-1 trucks. Youngstown doors with Camel fixtures, Ajax power hand brakes, Apex Tri-Lok brake steps, and wood running boards rounded out the main specialties. The roofs were treated with slate granules while the paint was still wet, giving them a pronounced dark grey to black appearance.

This later repaint circa 1959 displays lowered placard and route card boards of a different style than as built, as well as a more modern scheme

These cars (and many other Santa Fe AAR-design cars) featured other unusual details that collectively resulted in distinctive cars. The placard and route card boards on these cars had beveled (or perhaps rounded) top and bottom edges and used brackets with mounts that incorporated "ears" or tabs with holes for rivets to attach to the doors or ends. The top of the right stile on the side ladders was shorter than the left, presumably as a safety feature when a carman swung his foot/leg around when at the top of the car. While these cars had push pole pockets on the ends at the lower corners, they did not have short angle sections below the ladders, as most cars with push pole pockets did; rather, the sill steps mounted to the bottom of the side sill and corners. These cars did not use bracket-type grab irons either, unusual by 1940. Likely due to the four pairs of crossbearers of the Duryea (as opposed to the typical AAR underframe) they used a shorter side sill support section under the door. In the aggregate, the underframe plus these other features make for distinctive prototypes worthy of detailed models.

*images I have of ATSF 140185, 140177, 140809, and 141106 all carry the curved map