I recently added a Through Baggage box car to my freight car fleet. Was that kind of car used in freight trains or passenger trains? I am modeling Canadian National in the 50’s.
Thank you
Through baggage cars, like express cars and express reefers (not the same thing,) were passenger stock. Quite frequently, through baggage cars would be found in long distance trains or trains that made connections with other long distance trains. They were often found in the consists of mail and express trains, which would normally consist of an RPO, mail storage car(s), express cars and one scroungy coach which served more as a caboose than as passenger space.
Note that your car should have passenger-style or higher-speed trucks and the usual passenger signal and steam lines - three hoses at each end instead of the usual one.
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
There are several references to Through Baggage cars in the Lepkey/West book on CNR passenger equipment. They’re listed under the heading “Box Baggage Cars”, and include the 45’ “Silk Service” cars, and several classes of 40’ steel boxcars, with or without end doors. Some were purpose-built, while others were freight boxcars rebuilt for express service - this would likely have included steam and signal lines, high speed trucks with locking centre pins and possibly, passenger-type brake valves. Many of the latter cars were later returned to freight service in the early '70s.
The 50 cars 11100-11149, built in 1943, are noted as “presenting a smart appearance…” and whose “colour scheme harmonizes with the System’s standard passenger green instead of the traditional box car red.” According to the publicity release, “This type of car can be used in either fast freight or passenger service, being specifically designed to carry urgent war-time shipments. CN 11104’s contents on its first assignment consisted of approximately one thousand bags of overseas mail.”
Many of this latter group ended up in freight service by the mid-'70s.
While I’m modelling the late-'30s, I have a similar car in-service, a slightly modified Accurail car. The high-speed trucks are from Athearn, while the car was painted with SMP Accupaint and lettered with C-D-S dry transfers.
I usually run it as either a sealed express or mail storage car in a passenger or express train, or as an lcl car in a mixed train destined for a CNR interchange.
Wayne
Thank you for the information.