OK, this is gonna be short. In the 70’s many branchlines out west were being shut down/abandoned and whatnot. Anyhow I came across in my mess of photographs pix of reefers that had hatches at the top as well as the usual doors that were some of the ‘grainboxes’ used during the period. Outside of the usual sources ,which don’t seem to have any, can anyone suggest possibilities? I know I could stick hatches on boxcars but…
http://www.athearn.com/Products/Default.aspx?ProdID=ATH2096 is a 2001 releaase from Athearn. Also part #'s 2097, 2098, &2090. I have these models - all UP - there may be more. They are “grainloading” boxcars, with the specialy marked doors. [:)]
They were probably pretty rare, most roads used just plain old 40 ft boxcars.
I agree with Dave. Most roads seemed to use old 40-foot boxcars with plank-built “grain doors” stuck in the door openings. Great Northern did, however, during the late 60s, rebuild several hundred wood-sided 40-foot boxcars into steel-sided boxcars with 10-foot plug doors. This style of plug door also had grain loading hatches in them. So far, I’ve only seen these potentially available through Modeler’s Choice kits. So, IMHO, the easiest method would be standard 40-foot boxes-with or without grain doors-which were not visible if the steel doors were closed.
I have 5 of the Athearn grain box cars: 2 CB&Q, 1 NP, 1 Soo Line, and 1 Santa Fe. My grain elevator ships in these cars as well as numerous ordinary 40’ box cars.
The Athearn grain box cars are frequently listed on Ebay. One model is a blue Gn car.
Standard 40’ boxes were on the way out, so commonly were used in grain service. Boxes specially equipped, grain doors, etc, for this service weren’t real common, because grain ended up shifting the freight car fleet toward covered hoppers. Special grain boxes were mostly a evolutionary dead end.
However, old ice reefers with the overhead hatch doors were on the way out also. This is the first time I’ve heard of reefers in this service.
I bet that these didn’t work that well, because those hatch doors would have to keep water from rain and snow out – and probably didn’t. In some refrigerated gear, the floors have ridges to ensure good air circulation. I’d hate to be the guy who had to sweep that out after a grain load. If you left it for the next load, it could get nasty. Anyone who’s worked around an elevator knows what I mean when you combine grain and stale water.[xx(]
In the 70’s.Peavy bought old ice reefers and converted then to grain cars. Railroads used 40’ boxcars for grain service on light rail branch lines. By the 80’s, the 40’ reefers/box cars were gone, and 100 ton grain hoppers were in use…
Jim
My “grain boxes” are packed away now, but I believe that they were ordinary 40’ boxes that were checked for leaks, and had the special doors installed. Not positive, but I remember reading something to that effect eons ago!![:)]
Cody showed how to convert a box car to a grain car for <$1.00 in supplies. You can find it on DPB video series.
Although I had not heard of old ice-hatch “reefers” being converted to grain service I see no reason why they could not have been. Although certain things were no doubt required to seal the inside of the car the basic modification would most likely have been the same as that used in converting standard forty footers to grain service.
Since these cars most likely had hinged doors all you would essentially have to do is weld the ice hatches closed to do the conversion–that would indicate that these cars were no longer being utilized in refrigerated cargo service. Your problem is going to come if you wanted to shove it into a loading/unloading site and model it as being loaded/unloaded in which case you are somehow or another going to have to model it with your doors folded back against the car sides.
The C.P.R. used boxcars to haul grain and used grain doors on the inside and never changed the sliding doors, also to prevent leakage they used huge rolls of brown paper to seal the doors, also many a trip was taken on the creek by the tracks on a couple of grain doors, I assume these were 40 foot cars.