sometime in the late 60’s the MP railroad had a bunch of ART refrigerator cars converted to box cars at the ART shops in St. Louis. i think these were primarily used for flour loading. does anyone out there have any information on the finished product? what was the number series? i would like to find photos of these converted cars.
grizlump
You might try posting this over in the Trains forum. There is a guy there who would probably know.
Search the MR article database. MR had plans and an article on them many years ago.
Model Railroading (not to be confused with Kalmbach’s Model Railroader had a photo of MP #112068 ex-ART reefer rblt as “flour loading” boxcar
April 1989 p.55
I may have an original photo of one of these cars
thanks for the information. at least i now have a number series to watch for. i am pretty sure about the dates since one of the big four carmen took the buyoff when the penn central merger happened and i saw him a short while later and he told me he was working in st louis on the art reefer conversion program for the mopac. that would have had to be 1968-1970.
grizlump
There are three photographs in the link.
thanks ever so much. just what i wanted to see.
now another question. two of the cars have short ladders and no running boards while one of them still has the full length ladders and grab irons on the roof corners but no running boards. were these cars originally rebuilt with running boards and later had them removed?
i have forgotten the exact dates running boards were removed. i was around the railroad back then but i just can’t remember. they were still being repaired in the early 60’s but by 67 nobody even inspected the tops of cars anymore, although, i remember yard clerks climbing up on top of reefers to check on heaters in 67 or 68.
grizlump
Grizlump,
Here are the car numbers for the fleet of flour cars converted as noted:
MP 112400-112499 1968-1971 From ART Ice bunker cars
MP 112600-112946 1971-1972 From ART Ice bunker cars
MP 113085-113297 1972 From ART Ice bunker cars
MP 114000-114226 1972-1973 From Packers Car Line Ice bunker cars
MP 114330-114697 1974-1975 From Fruit Growers Express ice bunker cars
ex-ART cars had ASF A-3 Ride Control trucks.
ex-PCX & FGE cars had Barber S-2-C trucks.
Hope that helps.
Gene
At a quick glance, a Walthers meat reefer might be a good starting point, as it already has the riveted belt line. I don’t have any of those, so I’m not sure about the car’s height or if its roof is the proper style, but it’s an easy task to change the roof, and the car could be lowered, if necessary, at the same time. The old Train Miniature plugdoor reefer or boxcar is probably the correct height:
…but adding that rivet strip could involve a lot of work. This same car, though, is pretty easy to convert into a boxcar - simply shave off the plugdoor detail, then cement a new door right over top of the old one:
I probably should have removed that tackboard, too. [
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Wayne
It looks like they left the ladders high at the brake wheel and lowered the rest. If I remember correctly, it was 1966 when roofwalks were banned from new construction.