I’ve been looking at the yellow Railbox boxcars and just now noticed different road numbers from various Railroads. So what is Railbox and why do they have different Road names?
I have some of the ones I think you're talking about, where there is a black rectangle painted over old Railbox reporting marks and new ones stenciled on. These, I believe, were acquired by other companies and therefore relettered. Some changes also came about not too long ago when TTX picked up Railbox (or the other way around, perhaps)
Missed part - Railbox (and Raligon) are very similar to TTX/Trailer Train, leasing companies maintaining fleets of railcars. Kind of like a U Haul or Pods model where a box or gondola can be rented from A to B, then once unloaded is parked somewhere near B until rented again.
Thanks. Oh now that you say that, I do remember seeing TTX on the ones running on the UP Line near me. I guess I’ll have to pay more attention, because I’ve been seeing a lot of them lately except they have so much graffiti that I can’t read any numbers. I was thinking about buying some to run on my Layout with my UP trains, but it looks like I may have to pay more attention before buying. .
OK so now I'm confused because i just looked through a lot of yellow N-Scale boxcars and i didn't see any with TTX on them. I'm going to be looking for some tomorrow on the UP line to see just what they have on them.
Railbox and Railgon are subsidiaries of Trailer Train Corp, which itself is owned by several railroads. The Railboxes and Railgons you see with reporting marks other than RBOX, ABOX and GONX were financed by the railroads whose reporting marks are on them now. The financing railroads took control of the cars that they financed and gave them their own reporting marks. The early ones that I remember are RBOX to C&O, BN, SOU and ATSF. ABOX to CN (CNA). GONX to B&O and I believe DRGW. Maybe others can fill in my memory gaps.
RailBox was part of the "Incentive Per Diem" car idea, which was pushed by our Federal government beginning in the early to mid-1970's. They were looking a there being a car shortage, at that time especially box cars. About 1973 and certainly during 1974 rail car builders were booming, churning out these cars for all kinds of owners. I would imagine that if you Googled "Incentive Per Diem" a history would come up.
Some of the RBOX cars wound up with MP reporting marks. I remember listening to the scanner while train watching at the Nampa yard, and the tower told the switch crew to pick up the MP box car on a certain track. The switch crew came back on the radio with "there is only a Railbox car on that track." The tower insisted there was an MP box car on that track, and finally someone on the switch crew must have looked at the reporting marks. A little while later the switch crew returned to the yard with the MP/Railbox car. This was in the latter half of the 1980s, but I believe you can still find a few boxcars running around in Railbox paint and MP reporting marks. Carter Edit: Here is one in 2009: http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=1823505
I think the merger may be recent enough that it hasn't shown up on models yet. Kind of an era-dependent thing.
There are newer cars (not the IPD cars for the 80's) that have the TTX logos and either FBOX or TBOX (longer). There are also still plenty of the older Railbox cars around as well, in a variety of reporting marks. Those are all gonna be 50ft "standard" modern-ish boxcars, versus the ultra-modern (2004+) FBOX/TBOX with grid side posts and taller stance.
I bought a set of them, with railroad (not lessor) reporting marks several years ago. They are MDC cars and are available in the swap meet forum!
In the past couple of years the 50' & 60' High Cube boxcars have had the older TTX logos in black & white replaced with a Red TTX logo. Also the stenciling of the phrase Railcar Pooling Experts has changed as well.
No... Railbox and Railgon have always been programs of TTX - essentially a pool of freight cars (whether it be intermodal flat cars that started it or the boxcars, gons, or doublestacks that followed) owned by the member railroads to reduce the financial risk of freight car ownership for the members.
