railbox box cars (rbox) early and late logos and road numbers

Model Railroader Prototype information for the modeler
1

who has information on the railbox box cars early and late logos and road numbers as i have decals to do both but am not sure which is which. also did railbox obtain older equiptment with the roof walks still on but side ladders removed and short ladders put on?

thanks for any help and info

tom

2

All of the RBOX* and ABOX cars were originally painted with the “early” logo. In either 1995 or 1996 (I have heard both) they switched logos. Since then any that have been repainted have received the new logo. Also, the new paint is slightly lighter than the old paint.

RBOX was not started until the 1970s. Roofwalks were banned sometime in the 1960s (1965 or 1966 I think). I have seen of some companies receiving time extensions for removing the roofwalks. However, none of Railbox’s equipment was that old.

I believe Railbox has now been absorbed into its parent company, TTX. That is why TBOX and FBOX bocars do not have Railbox on them.

Here is a summary of Railbox equipment (including TTX’s TBOX and FBOX boxcars)

RBOX - exterior post, single door XM boxcars built in the mid 1970s to early 1980s by FMC (XFF20 and XFF99), Pacific Car & Foundry (XCF10, XCF11, XCF20, XCF20A), Pullman Standard (XPF11, XPF11A, XPF20, XPF20A, XPF20B), Berwick Forge and Foundry (XWF20), American Car and Foundry (XAF20, XAF20A, XAF20B, XAF20C) and some other manufacturers (XEF88, XGF88).

ABOX - same as the RBOX but with a 4’ plug door to the left of the sliding door, built by FMC (XFF30, XFF30A) and possibly by Pacific Car & Foundry.

TBOX - 60’ exterior post, excess height, double 8’ plug door XM boxcars built from 2002 to present by Gunderson (XGH60), Trinity Rail Group (XRH60) and National Steel Car Company (XNH60).

FBOX - 50’ exterior post, excess height, single 12’(?) plug door XM boxcars built by the same companies that build the TBOX (XGH52, XRH52, and XNH50). Also Freight Car America (formerly Johnstown America) builds FBOX boxcars (XJH52).

*There were some boxcars RBOX bought used.

This might be of help.
http://www.trainweb.org/nwrp/rbox/rbox.htm

I am typing the various classes by memory (X_F##), so there may be some errors.

3

Here are HO scale models of car Railbox/TTX has.
RBOX:
FMC: Athearn RTR 91400 series, MDC 1950 series (hopefully Athearn will bring this back as a kit).
ACF: Athearn 5520 series (kits), Athearn RTR 7050 series, Accurail 5600 series, LBF 1230 series
PS: MDC 1900 series (hopefully Athearn will bring this back as a kit)
BFF: Branchline Trains 2100 series

ABOX:
FMC: MDC 1930 series (hopefully Athearn will bring this back as a kit).

TBOX:
XGH60: Athearn Genesis 4100 series,
XNH60: LBF 2500 series

FBOX:
XGH52: LBF 2800 series
XNH50: LBF 2700 series

4

thanks this did help a lot. i was mainly wondering about the large lnext load any road with 5 digit road number and the small next load any road logo with 4 digit road number. the link you provided helped out though.

thanks
'tom

5

Cars with four digit and five digit numbers have both large logos (original scheme) and small logos (cars repainted since 1995 or 1996).

6

ok thanks i was under the impression that the small logo was the orginal and the large was the newer style logo. thanks for clearing that up

tom

7

As background, all the marks mentioned are owned and managed by TTX. The marks define the types of cars somewhat.

Your information is certainly correct to the degree necessary for the intent in mind. The only addition would be to the FBOX fleet which has, unfortunately, both 10’ and 12’ single plug doors. The Eastern carriers were slow to come around to the trend the Western carriers saw in paper roll dimensions.

You might be lucky enough to see a prototype TTX is testing -

IBOX - 60’ double door high cube INSULATED box.

We’re hoping this last will get us away from the equipment with the interior load dividers which are ruinously expensive to operate. Problem is, current car prices make this car too expensive for the products they are intended to carry.

8

FYI -
Alot of the Railbox Box cars that I have seen as of late here in the Syracuse NY area have TTX on them. May want to do a google search for Railbox. I did and one of the links had a HO Railbox Box car w/ TTX on it.
Either way, it’s worth the effort to do google searches for that info, [2c].
JP