Good times, great oldies... Forty-foot Postwar AAR Box Cars

 

This Georgia car is a decorated Branchline kit, save for a Southwest Scale Improved Youngstown doors with 6-6-5 (top to bottom) arrangement of corrugations and matching paint on the door and Ksto ASF A-3 trucks

Way back in the early times of Speedwitch over 20 years ago, I had offered several sets of parts to replicate the various details and nuances of forty-foot Postwar AAR box cars, using the fine Branchline kits as fodder. They were a fun way to model the distinctive details of these cars. Anyway, I stumbled across a tote of parts in the barn yesterday and it had various bits for the Santa Fe's Bx-44 cars, with their distinctive interim Improved Youngstown doors. That also got me thinking about the cars in general. What a fun ride they were. Here are some pics of those cars with notes about some of the details.

The Santa Fe's 500 Bx-44 box cars were distinct for their interim Improved Youngstown doors, with wide panel overlaps. The cars also had Pullman-Standard "notched" tabs below the side sill and a flattened area on the end corrugation where the hand brake housing was mounted.

The Wabash continued their use of full-length side sill support sections that spanned the bolsters, as also added to earlier Modified 1937 AAR box cars. They also used pressure head cylinders with integral lever brackets, Superior seven panel doors, and Wine style ladders, among other specialties.

The Southern and subsidiaries purchased postwar AAR box cars with eight-foot door openings with either Superior seven-panel doors (shown) or Improved Youngstown doors with the 6-6-5 corrugation arrangement as well as Pullman-Standard "notched" tabs below the side sill. PS - the washout on the Southern medallion is what happens when you accidentally use solvent cement as a decal softener!

The Pittsburgh & West Virginia cars had Improved Dreadnaught ends with an "abbreviated" (shortened) top main rib and prewar-style Youngstown doors plus Wine-style ladders. The repainted version above was modeled by the late Paul Lyons and the model below shows an as-built car

The Erie purchased 1,200 cars that also had an abbreviated top rib on the ends and prewar-style Youngstown doors, plus Universal Rotary Type brake adjusters and a variety of hand brakes, trucks and running boards

The Louisville & Nashville has distinctive cars with three door styles (prewar Youngstown, 6-6-5 Improved Youngstown and seven-panel Superior) and ends without any lower corner additions below the end sills

These were a lot of fun to create and are highly illustrative of how different "standard" cars can be

More Prototypes for Universal 5700XL Hand Brake with M2049 Hand Wheel

PFE R-40-20 45819, Baltimore, Maryland, Sept. 28, 1951, Col. Chet McCoid photo, Bob's Photo

I have been doing some additional sleuthing and have found several more prototypes that can use the Universal 5700XL Hand Brake with M2049 Hand Wheel as created in HO scale by Kadee. Here they are, with photos in some instances. This list is still a work in progress. 
Previous post may be accessed via this link.

• Chicago and North Western Modified 1937 AAR Box cars nos. 71000-71998, 76900-77414 and 80252-81450 (all even nos.) Also, CNW 73154, even though the Hawkins Mod. '37 AAR data indicates that it shouldn't have this hand brake.
• Chicago and North Western 50-foot Express Box cars nos. 68000-68048 (even) 
• Chicago and North Western Hart Ballast Hopper cars nos. 13501-13999 (odd)
• Chicago, Minneapolis, St. Paul & Omaha Express Box cars nos. 20000-20048 (even)
• Erie Hopper cars nos. 28600-28899
• New York Central Lot 694-B Automobile cars nos. 62300-62599
• [I am quite certain that there are a lot more New York Central System (NYCS) box cars that used this power hand brake, as it seemed to the design of choice for the NYCS from the late 1930s to the mid-1940s; I am basing all listings upon photo sources and other verifiable materials.]
• Pacific Fruit Express R-40-20 Refrigerator cars nos. 45701-46200
• Pacific Fruit Express R-40-23 Refrigerator cars nos. 5751-6000, 7001-7500, and 47703-48202
• Pacific Fruit Express R-30-21 Refrigerator cars nos. 64135, 64973
• Pacific Fruit Express R-40-18 Refrigerator car no. 60417… maybe
• Pacific Fruit Express R-40-24 Refrigerator car no. 68057
• Pacific Fruit Express R-50-5 Refrigerator cars nos. 200367, 200375 (likely the entire series 200301-200375)
• Union Pacific B-50-17 Box car 180931 — Ajax with Universal M2049 wheel
• Union Pacific B-50-36 Box car 195381 (likely others, too)

 

• Burlington Refrigerator Express 74000-74499 and 74500-74697 Emergency Refrigerator cars
• Fruit Growers Express 38000-38199 and 38200-38265 and 38266-38373 Emergency Refrigerator cars
• Western Fruit Express 66400-66499, 66500-66549 and 66550-66624 Emergency Refrigerator cars
• Fruit Growers Express 38375-38499 Refrigerator cars
• Fruit Growers Express 38500-38634 Refrigerator cars
• Fruit Growers Express (FOBX) Overhead Bunker Refrigerator cars

 

Late Steam Era 36-foot Box Cars

Jim Gerstley

Several months ago, I mentioned that I would post a list of 36-foot box cars that would be useful prototypes for late 1940s to early 1950s modelers (meaning that these cars were still operating in reasonable quantities, either in gross numbers or as a percentage of the road’s fleet.) Without much fanfare, here is the list, along with some photos, and HO scale model references where known.

Al Armitage photo

*Canadian National Dominion/Fowler Patent single sheathed box cars - the CN's cars including subsidiaries are too numerous to chronicle in a sentence; it is sufficient to say there were over 33,000 cars with many subtle detail differences; HO scale models from Speedwitch K104 kits (five-foot door opening), Westerfield, True Line Trains/LifeLike Canada, Accurail; Mainline Modeler, November 1985

Roseville, Calif., Oct 24, 1952, Col. Chet McCoid photo, Bob's Photo

*Canadian Pacific Dominion/Fowler Patent single sheathed box cars - like the CN, the CP had a massive fleet, with over 33,000 cars for itself and subsidiaries; too many to delineate in a sentence or paragraph; HO scale models from Westerfield, Accurail (six-foot door opening only); Mainline Modeler, June 1985

George Sisk photo, Charles Winters Collection

*Other Dominion/Fowler Patent single sheathed box cars, including Erie, NYS&W, NC&StL, PGE, Wabash, Soo, and others - Westerfield, Accurail; Mainline Modeler, April 1986

Delaware & Hudson double sheathed box cars profiled through the link included herein - models may be kit-scratchbashed or old Funaro & Camerlengo kits; Railroad Model Craftsman, November and December 1987

Bob's Photo

Erie single sheathed box cars (different from the Erie's Fowler/Dominion cars and more numerous in the late Steam Era). These cars were built by Standard Steel in 1921 and assigned to 93000-93999. They featured hat section pressed steel structural members as shown on Erie 93132 above. - no models at present

Harry Zillmer photo

Illinois Terminal 8100-8199 series single sheathed box cars built by Mt. Vernon in 1928. Note the Dalman Two-Level trucks (without Barber Lateral Motion devices) - Sunshine Models kits. 

Paterson, New Jersey, ca. 1947, Sirman Collection

Louisville & Nashville double sheathed box cars. Over the years, the Louisville & Nashville had thousands of such cars, with many subtle and not so subtle differences in characteristics. By the twilight of Steam, they were concentrated in two series: 8000-8999 and 10000-11999. Note the extensive damage to the door frame and roof at left edge of door in photo above - Sunshine Models

Missouri Pacific Lines double sheathed and rebuilt box cars. MP had cars as shown above well into the late 1940s and 1950 with many rebuilt into distinctive all-steel cars like MP 120050 shown at the top of this post - Sunshine Models; Railway Prototype Cyclopedia, Vol. 14.

Bob's Photo

New York Central System (NYC, B&A, P&LE) double sheathed box cars - Funaro & Camerlengo (general site link - search by road for specific kits), Accurail. F&C had a kit for this B&A car with Dreadnaught ends (I had one and gave it away to a friend recently as I have no need for more than one B&A car and my one is a USRA-design steel car.) 

Al Armitage photo

Southern (Mobile & Ohio and Lancaster & Chester) double sheathed truss box cars. These were incredibly numerous (almost 15,000 cars) and some of the last truss rod cars built - Westerfield, Funaro & Camerlengo; Railroad Model Craftsman March 2004

*Russ Pinchbeck and the late Stafford Swain presented a clinic about the Fowler/Dominion cars on the RPM circuit circa 2003 and included a detailed handout.

Eric Hansmann's blog Notes on Designing, Building, and Operating Model Railroads has much good information about 36-foot cars (particularly the NYC System cars produced by Accurail) as he is a 1920s-era modeler and his need for these cars is obvious!

Below are a few models. From top to bottom, Westerfield, Speedwitch, Westerfield

Wordy Wednesday - Erie 76012

San Diego, California, December 4, 1954, Col. Chet McCoid photo, Bob's Photo

The ARA design of 1923 for double sheathed box cars (double sheathed = steel outer sheathing + wood interior lining) was modified through the 1920s, culminating in the iterations built for the Van Sweringen roads Erie, Chesapeake & Ohio, and Pere Marquette (see Wordy Wednesday from September 26, 2018). The Erie purchased a “predecessor” group in 1928. In 1930, the roads collectively added 3,000 cars — 1,500 to PM, 1,000 to C&O, and 500 to Erie (nos. 75500-75999).

In mid-1930, the Erie added an additional 500 cars, nos. 76000-76499, that followed the Van Sweringen iteration of the design, but with an inside height of 9’3”, an increase of 7” over the earlier cars. Erie 76012 was one of these cars, built by American Car & Foundry’s Berwick, Pennsylvania plant. The cars were delivered with Buckeye ends, Climax radial roofs, Youngstown doors with Camel no. 50 rollers, and KC air schedule brakes

By the time of this photo, the car had received a few modifications. It had been upgraded with AB schedule brakes as well as an Ajax power hand brake. In addition the roof was replaced with a Murphy diagonal panel roof with steel grid running board that appears to be an Apex Tri-Lok. Finally, the side sheathing had been repaired with patches along the side sill.