Steam era boxcar questions

Model Railroader Prototype information for the modeler
1

I have taken the plunge and back dated from modern era to steam era. I have yet to decide exactly when in the steam era I want to focus on. I’m modeling in N scale if that makes a difference.

I’d like to have mix of wood sided and steel sided boxcars. About what year would it still be prevalent to see such a thing? Also, when did mechanical refrigeration come into widespread use? I would like to model ice reefers and the ice houses that supplied them. I would imagine transistion era would be a bit late for that. I’m freelancing a fictitious short line but I’d like the time frame for my rolling stock to be logical. Current motive power is Kato Mikados.

2

I am a steam era modeler and I model the early to mid 50s and they were still common then but heavily outnumbered by the steel cars. It is my recollection that there were still some ice cooled, wood reefers in existence in the 1960s. Perhaps others can be more specific.

I remember seeing a Rock Island single sheathed box car on the Boston & Maine in 1971. I remember it because such a sight by then was very rare. However, the WAG shortline bought a number of SS wood boxcars from the Boston & Maine deadline and ran them into the 1970s. I think you could still see them in the early 60s but they were getting rare. I believe wood boxcars might have lasted longer on Canadian roads and Canadian owned roads like the SOO and the GTW. Some were used for dedicated stinky “hyde” service as that was not a swell cargo for a car that would be used for general shippers and relegated to hand me down cars.

3

Thank you, that helps. I’m just trying to sort out what I want to do. I’m not really sure I want to go as late as transistion era. I guess I should try to figure out when steel sided boxcars started appearing and target my time frame somewhere in between then and when the wood ones started becoming rare. That would give me a good mix.

4

FGEX received it’s first mechanical reefer on 2/15/1949 according to the FGEX publication by the SCL. B&O and PRR Historical Societies. This may still be available on one of the websites but is a tremedous effort to modelers and covers all the types of cars and significant details. It is probably safe to say that since they owned over 29,000 cars that Ice reefers would have lasted into the 60’s so as long as you model the 50’s you can have both justifiably

5

New steel box cars go back further but by the late 20s, just about everyone ordered all steel box cars. The NYC and PRR were in the lead I believe, ordering them as early as the WWI period or just before. I also understand that by then the standard design was steel. What we recognize as “generic” steel 40’ box cars were built in large quantities in the 30s and the 40s. Also note that some wood box cars were rebuilt with steel sides in company car shops.

If you model the 1930s, steel box cars were already a presence in the freight car fleet and by WWII they had made serious inroads but the old wood cars were still needed but beat to death during the war and steadily replaced as the post World War II economy kicked in.

I believe Tony Koester wrote an article on freight cars in Model Railroader in the past several years that covered the history of what you might be looking for.

The best reference for you is if you are not sure what era to model is to look at photographs taken in various eras. Look at the consists in the trains. Most likely they would be mostly B&W for anything before WWII but would be useful. If you are not freelancing and interested in a particular railroad or railroads get a book on that railroad. Sometimes it is not necessary to buy books as your library might be able to get them interlibrary loan. MD McCarter online has quite a collection of photos you can buy as well as many other photo dealers. The Rensselaer Model Railroad Society also put out l

6

OK, some more info for you.

It depends on the type of wood box car. Many box cars with steel frames, ends and roofs were built with wood sides during WWII to conserve steel. These cars lasted well into the 60’s - consider 20 years about the life span of a railroad car between major rebuilds.

Cars with steel underframes but other wise all wood construction would be rare after WWII, but did exist.

Ice reefers did MOST of the reefer work until the early 70’s! Yes, it took a while for mechanical reefers to catch on. While the earlest ones were built in the very late 40’s and early 50’s, wholesale construction of them, and replacement of existing ice reefers, did not begin until the late 50’s and early 60’s - again keep in mind the 20 year life span - railroads don’t and didn’t trade perfectly good rolling stock in like trendy people buy new cars - they used them until maintence or regulations forced them to replace or rebuild.

And, same as box cars, reefers with all steel construction except for wood sides would still be seen all through the 50’s.

I model the early 50’s, and actually, nobody currently makes models of any of the few mechanical reefers that were around in my 1954 time frame. Those 50’ and 57’ ones commonly available did not show up until '57 or '58, and even then it was only a few.

I know you did not ask about this, but I will give you a time frame for some other stuff:

Piggyback, using 40’ and 50’ flats started right after WWII and by the early 50’s was going pretty strong. 75’ piggyback flats were indroduced on a few roads in '53-'54, by ‘58 the 85’ flat was being developed and tested.

Tank cars moved lots of petrolium products until after WWII, during the 50’s this declined as ships carried more (through the Panama canal) and pipe lines were built around the country.

Automobiles were carried in 50’ double door box cars (6 autos to a box car with special racks inside) well into the early ‘60’s. 50’ open 6 c

7

Remember that 1920’s-30’s era boxcars and reefers were generally only 8-1/2 feet high. The 10’ “high car” boxcars came along in the mid-later thirties, but the lower cars (all-steel, or steel end and roof with double or single sheathed wood) continued into the 1960’s. I know some GN / Western Fruit Express reefers were repainted with the modern “big sky blue” type lettering and herald in the late sixties, and GN had some woodsided boxcars repainted in the bright red 1960’s lettering.

8

Thanks so much to all of you for the information. It sounds as if I can run all but the earliest of equipment right up into transition era. My railroad is envisioned to be a small shortline that interchanges with the Espee. It’s inspired by John Allens Gorre and Daphetid as most everything that I do is. I don’t have his aversion to diesels but I still haven’t decided when in time I want it to be. My date range was roughly from the late 30’s up into the 50’s but I was leaning earlier because I didn’t believe I could mix wood and steel cars and use ice reefers in the 50’s. Happily I was apparently quite wrong!

9

Kodachrome:

I also model the steam era, but it’s during the WWII period covering about 1939-1950. On my layout, there are quite a few wooden cars still running–cars built during the 1920’s and '30’s, along with the War Emergency boxcars and gondolas, mixed with steel boxcars.

My considerable refrigerator car fleet is about a 50-50 mix of steel and wood. Mechanical steel reefers haven’t made a considerable impact yet (they were introduced in 1949 if I remember correctly), so the majority of my reefers are still of the “Ventilator-Refrigerator” type. I still run a considerable number of steel-braced auto and boxcars.

So, for my particular era, at least, wood and steel-braced wood cars are still rather prevelant on my MR. During WWII, steel was pretty much used for defence and Military purposes. The steel rolling stock on my MR usually represents cars built prior to 1939, or after 1945.

Tom [:)]

10

Be sure to watch the trucks and underframes…archbar trucks and truss-rod cars without steel underframe support were banned from interchange in the thirties. The next big change wasn’t until the 1960’s when roofwalks were outlawed. One of the things that makes the transition era interesting is that the freight cars were in transition too - big 50’ long, 10’ double door box cars might be next to an 8.5’ high, 36’ woodsuded meat reefer in the same train.

11

Kalmbach’s PDF-download Freight Cars of the 1950s has the type of answers you seek. Articles include…

Freight Equipment and Operations; Railroad Drab (reviews all major car types); Moving Citrus to Market (including ice plants and refrigeration cars); 1950s Piggyback Trailers, and; Modeler’s Guide to Steel Box Cars.

For example, 50’ steel boxcars began replacing wooden box cars in the 1940s-1950s similar to how steam was later transitioned into diesel by 1960.

Also, whether or not you model the Pennsy, don’t overlook Keystone Crossings.

12

The Tony Koester article that “Wabash” referred to was “Modeler’s guide to steel boxcars” in the May 2006 MR, pages 58-66. It doesn’t deal directly with the question of the longevity of wooden or wood-sheathed cars, but it does include a 1948 prototype yard photo that shows several wood-sheathed boxcars mixed in with all-steel cars. In that photo, a few of the wood-sheathed cars are actually newer than some of the earlier all-steel cars. Many wood-sheathed cars actually outlasted the steam locomotive.

So long,

Andy

13

You might want to narrow your range a bit from the “steam era”.

I model 1900 and that’s right in the middle of the steam era (which runs from the 1830’s to the late 1950’s).

If you want steel boxcars that puts it post WW1. If you want boxcars 10 ft IH (or less) that puts it 1930’s. If you want 10’ 6’ high boxcars that puts it after mid 1930’s.

If you choose the late 1930’s, you will have everything you want, you won’t have covered hoppers or diesels.

14

Well yes, that’s kind of what I’m trying to do. I want to model “steam era” as opposed to “modern era” which is what I have been doing. I’m pretty new to all things “steam era” though so my question was posed to help me narrow down when in the steam era I wanted to place my time frame. As you pointed out we are talking a range of 120 some odd years! I still have not completely decided yet, but the information I have gotten here is invaluable.

15

WAG (Wellsville, Addison, and Galeton) is somewhat famous for having a bunch of those outside braced single sheathed cars in revenue service right up until the end. I have a picture (unrelated) in one of my books that shows a PC train in 1975 passing over a Reading yard and the first car behind the PC loco is a WAG outside braced boxcar.

–Randy

16

Even the term “transition era” can be deceiving, as the first successful diesel (or “oil-electric” to be precise) engines date back to 1908-10 time period on the Dan Patch Electric Line in Minnesota. They wanted to build an electric railroad, but didn’t have a lot of up-front money for installing overhead catenary. Someone had the idea of taking boxcab electrics and adding an oil-powered electric generator to the engines, so the generator could create the electricity to run the traction motors with. That way they could lay track first and add overhead wires later. Turns out they never did add overhead wires.

Plus of course around 1980 the Crab Orchard & Egyptian RR was running a steam-engine-only freight railroad.

17

I’ve seen pictures taken in the late 1980’s showing old 40’ wood box cars still in grain service on Canadian National and competing with modern 50’ cylindrical hoppers… Let’s talk about anachronism and maximum profit!

Matt