What were they smaller than 40’ cars? rambo1…
Do you mean this Miniboxcar series?
If not, could you define your questions more specific.
Are you referring to the Miniboxes I mentioned in the Not Dead Yet thread about boxcar leasing?
If so, gentlemen what we have here is a “Low Forty”. I have provided the link from which the model car prototype information was taken.
Now to put this into perspective. Picture yourself looking straight at the side of this car. This car is forty feet long. An international container (seacan) is 40’(l)x8’6"(h)x8’(w). The interior height of this car is 8’7".
It was taller than the low portion of a standard CPR wood body caboose, but a man sitting in the cupola would normally be at eye level with the top of the roof. They were built that way because in 1929 steel was still exceedingly expensive. It was a way of controlling the cost per boxcar. But it was not liked by Elevator Agents, due to the fact that when the Agent had to get into the car and trim the load from the last couple of hopper loads from the elevator, he had to slide around on his belly. In a normal height car you could at least work on your hands and knees.
When I look at the various versions the model maker offers, my mind reels at the potential number of cars I have seen in the Stepped Lettering scheme.[:O]
The link:
yes sir thats the one. rambo1…
Notice the cars don’t have poling pockets.
Isn’t that the weirdest thing. I have seen more of those cars than I could ever remember and yet it takes someone from out of town, as it were, to notice something like that. That is why forums like these are so interesting, something you thought you knew about your whole life can be upended in an instant.
The Canadian Pacific Historical Association forum on Yahoo! generally thrashes things out to within an inch of their lives, and yet I don’t recall this point ever being a topic of discussion. I am going to have to look into this closer.
Bruce