On my forthcoming new layout, which is steam/early diesel era, I expect to have a number of 40ft boxcars. I think some 50 foot boxcars were also around during this period. Can anyone enlighten me as to which ones, and of good quality models of them, please? TIA
Thinking about the D&H (Gee, go figure ), thier first Diesel was an ALCo Yard Switcher S-2 which was built in 1944 and within ~10 years the Steam Engines are basically gone. This means that most the Box Cars during that time were those already built in the 30' and 40' range. There are some 50' on the roster in the mid-1950's but it's hard to say if the two ever met from what I've been able to look up tonight. There maybe other roadnames where this is not the issue so you might have to be picky to be 100% accurate.
Walthers makes 50' OB wood box cars, I think they were auto boxes, they have the end door on them. I have a few Milwaukee models and they are very nice!! According to Milwaukee Railroader magizine they were built in the early 50's.
Alan- 50' box cars were certainly around during the steam era. One cargo they hauled, that immediately comes into my mind, (double doors and some end doors), was automobiles. Boxcab E50
I suppose I should settle on an actual year to represent my layout, then I can choose models that are accurate to the time period. From looking at pics of 50ft boxcar models, the build dates seem to be early '50 onwards. Not sure how late I can go to have steam. My diesels are and Alco S1 and a GE 70 tonner. Also have a Gas-Electric for my passenger trains. So what would be a good year to choose to run these, plus my Spectrum 2-8-0 and 'Russian' decapod?
Alan - I can remember on the B&M they were still running 2-6-0s on work trains and small 2-8-0s on local freights in 1948. Also had Also S-1s and GE 44 ton with some gas electrics on branch line passenger. In late 1950 the commuter train on the Lexington branch into Boston had wooden open platform coaches pulled by a 2400 class 2-8-0. There were a lot of outside braced wooden 40 ft box cars and I know there were 50 ft steel box cars from other railroads.
Alan, found a couple of resources that may help: http://www.steamfreightcars.com/ Has got a load of info on modelling freightcars of this period. http://users.multipro.com/westerfield/ Westerfield only does steam era cars (although some lasted into the 70's in service) but there are a bunch of 50' designs among them... MDC and Walthers both did 50' wooden boxcars that were quite cool and almost certainly pre-1950's built, they benefit from a little detailing, but are pretty nice looking to start with.
Alan, The Central Railroad of New Jersey ran steam Camelbacks until 1954. The PRR ran steam, K-4 Pacifics, into mid 1957. Both were used in passenger service. The NKP ran 2-8-4 Berkshires in all steam main-line freight service between Buffalo and Chicago through 1957. I believe the National Railroads of Mexico had steam service until 1963. As Boxcab has stated, 50' double door boxcars were used for automobiles, auto parts and furniture, a great deal from furniture factories in North Carolina. P2K makes a very detailed 50' DD boxcar kit. It would be a good idea to set a year for your railroad's operation. I model 1956 and all of my vehicles, rolling stock (Built and Rebuild dates) and locos are pre 1956. Glenn
Alan, A considerable percentage of your total car fleet can be 50-foot boxcars -- I avoid them since they look so much bigger than the 40-footers. The cars built by ACF (Life-Like offers these in model form in several variations, Branchline offers some others) were built in the 1920s primarily for appliance and auto service. The only ones you have to be careful about from an era point of view are the 50-foot PS-1 like those from Kadee and InterMountain -- these cars were built in the 1950s, so if you want to be picky the year does matter. MDC offers a nice model of a fairly typical 50-foot single sheathed car. If you want some really nice models built a Westerfield resin kit for a GN 50-foot single-sheathed car, but be sure to get the "modernized" version -- Westerfield's "modern" is about post 1940! And stay away from the exterior post cars of all types and sizes -- they didn't show up until the 1970s-- replacing all those old, outdated 40- and 50-footers. Marty
Lots of good advice and info there, fellas Thanks a lot. Martyn, that Westerfield site is very interesting, must try one of their kits. Gil, I really like 2-6-0's, so am pleased to know they ran in late steam days. Glenn, I may have the odd 50ft car for autoparts service, but will mainly stay with various 40 footers. Marty, thanks for the model availability info. I will take a look around. As my layout will be very small, I also will avoid too many 50 foot cars, but would like one or two for variety.
Alan-The Danbury Rail Museum has a B&M mogul (1400 class) and I think Peirce has photos of it in Railimages.
I didn't mean to say that there wasn't 50'ers but that certain roadnames might not be valid based on what year you pick in the end is all. What information I have on D&H freight is limited but most 50' - 60'ers seem to be from the 1970's where those much shorter built in the early 1900's were still in service into the 1980's. I did find a note tonight that stated that the last 40' cars with 8' doors for the D&H were delivered in 1956 and the first order of 50'ers was also 1956 so this might be a good date to work with in looking at the other roadnames. This was the status of that first order: Steal Box, 54' 4" x 10' 6" x 15' with 8' x 9' 9" doors with a 110K# Capacity. {Pullman} which were series #22000-22249 Sorry for my misleading earlier statement.
Some of the earliest dates I come up with for 50 foot boxcars are 1925 and 1929. These were outside braced, single walled, wood construction, with steel ends for most. Quite a number had end doors and auto racks used in automobile service. Other were not equipped with the racks and saw service hauling lumber, the end doors making loading easier. A number were double door and some were single side doors. Some of these double door cars had the doors removed and were used to haul green veneer with floor to roof stakes in place of the doors. Older cars saw service in hide shipping, and in that service they were dedicated since once hides were hauled you couldn't haul anything else. A number of the cars were rebuilt by the 1950s getting new metal sides and losing the outside bracing. However quite a few old outside braced 50 footers made it into the 1960s as is and a few actually into the 1970s BN era. In short a number of outside braced single sheathed wood 50 footers will be right at home behind steam and first generation diesel. Depending on the needs of the shippers in the area a consist could have a majority of 50 footers.
Alan, don't know if it helps but Walthers have 25% off everything in the Athearn and MDC ranges at present, they still have some of the MDC 50' single sheath boxcars in stock.
I don't know if it's true, but I heard that Walthers is going to quit selling Athearns and MDC because of Horizon!! If you look at thier site all products say discontinued when sold out.
It's true, Horizon are the sole distributor, which means that Walthers cannot be a distributor any more, hence the sale.
Large covered house cars with slatted sides appeared in the late 19th century. RAILROAD magazine in the 1950s, when they had a 'hobby corner' section, had plans and how to build article for one of these barrel boxes. Cooperage cars ,like the famous Menasha Wooden Works cars, are a totally enclosed version ofa "Barrel Box". The latter is currently made by HUFF N' PUFF. They also produce an open sided, generic version of the style covered in the RAILIROAD article. They also have offered a 60 ft. double door, NP double sheathed, unusual car used for wagon/surrey transport. These were built circa 1910 , and spent most of their existence as LCL trap cars. These are distinguished by having two doors set widely apart (like a baggage car) and were sectionalized internally to allow for multiple shipments . That is of wagons to different dealers at different points. This also came in handy for LCL service later. All of these are worth mentioning since they are/were available from maker now (and can be easily found at Timonium, or similar train shows). Other exotic large cars have been made in the past by RED BALL, and dead companies. that also included cars for some other purposes (horses and mules, and circus menageries to name some). They were not common, but cooperage, and vehicle carrying cars of outsize proportions have been around a very long time, including the entire twentieth century. Good-Luck, PJB
