Could someone please tell me, in general terms, when 40 and 50 ft boxcars were phased out, or point me in the direction of the relevant website? Do some even survive today? I wouldn’t have a clue[:D]
Many thanks!
Mike
I’m guessing you mean the steam-era cars, like the Athearn HO models. For all intents and purposes they were gone by 1990. American freight cars can be used for 40 years. After that they can no longer be interchanged. The time limit can be extended to 50 years by rebuilding the cars. The steam era steel cars (like the Athearn HO models) were built from the mid 1930’s until the mid-1960’s, so they had to be off the rails by mid-2000s at the latest. There are some still around in company service and as storage sheds but they were mostly gone by 1990.
Regardless of length, roof walks (or “running boards,”) were removed from new-in-service cars starting in 1966, and from existing cars in 1974 for interchange service. (These dates from another web thread, so don’t take them as gospel.) The applicable government agency does not have the authority to regulate what a railroad does with its own cars on its own tracks, but it does have this level of control over cars that are “interchanged” between railroads. There’s an exception for cars with roof hatches, but in modelling, most roof hatches are associated with old ice-bunker refrigerator cars, which left service in favor of mechanical cooling earlier than this, I think.
Good info regarding the steam era freight cars.
All steel 50ft. boxcars from ACF and its competitors continued to be built up until the early 70s. Plug door models were the preferred choice. Though there numbers are smaller than years past, quite a number survive today.
Paccar (Pacific Car and Foundry) is still building 50 foot boxcars. I frequently see cuts of brand new ones-usually with sliding doors, but not always-out here in Washington. BNSF is a customer and I’ve seen other reporting marks as well-though I can’t quite remember them all.
My understanding is that not a whole lot of boxcars have been built in recent years, as much of the freight they used to handle has switched to intermodal. There were a lot of leftover box cars from the 70’s and 80s’ too, so the supply is such that not a whole lot of new ones are needed to be made. Big markets where they still dominate are paper, some wood products and auto parts industries, full boxcar load, shipper-direct-to-customer businesses.
Because of the “leftover” oversupply of boxcars from the 70’s/80’s, a lot of those are still in service today- 50 and 60 foot boxcars, some refurbished. 50 foot boxcars are still a common sight on today’s rail, and 60 footers more common still. Quite common on short lines, where they still carry a lot of freight. One thing that’s cool is that because of the more aged nature of boxcars, many of them with second or third owners still sport fallen flag heralds and colors, probably more so than any other type of freight car.
That’s great information. Thankyou very much everybody.
Mike