The photo below is not mine, but is from a current Ebay auction. (Accordingly, I'll take the photo down in a few days once the auction expires).

[photo deleted]

Anyway, the point of this thread is only to say, "wow, what a neat box car." And also, to say, "darn, how come there aren't more of these around? (sigh)". Honestly, I'd trade a dozen old cabooses for a single box car like this in perfect shape.

As I stare at the photo (above) of this CGW car, I just keep noticing more details: stenciled inside dimensions, highlighted data on the wheels, an interesting access hatch on the end. I've never seen a car like this in person. How old is it? Where can I see one?

Searching the net, I did find a similar one in Duluth (below). But it sits outside in the elements. I have to wonder, will it survive?

Does anyone treasure these old box cars as much as I do?



3869 Great Northern Box Car by meabbott, on Flickr

The quick answer to your question is, Yes, others do appreciate these cars. We have done extensive work on a couple at the Western Railway Museum. The door in the back? It's for loading long pieces of lumber. No, you don't put the lumber in through the door. You (or you and 4 other big guys) walk in the door with the long piece of lumber/timber, let the end stick out the back door and then, after the other end has cleared the regular door pull the piece out of the back door and put it on the stack you are building. In other words, the back door lets you load lumber that is longer than 1/2 the car length plus 1/2 the side door width, i.e., longer than 21' for a 36' car with a 6' door.

looks like the truck maker is making the best of flashing their mad skilz. This period was about the advertising cars, why that was forbidden is beyond BURMA SHAVE me...

Narrow gauge wooden box cars are neat too.

WRM actually has a fairly large collection of wood-sided box cars.

We have four which were owned by electric railroads in California:

Central California Traction 2001 and 3001 (the two restored cars Joe mentioned)
Sacramento Northern 2136 and 2314

Also two from steam railroads:
Richmond, Fredericksburg & Potomac 2289
Denver & Rio Grande 63383

All of these cars are stored indoors.

In addition to WRM's collection, two other such cars in California:

Minneapolis & St. Louis 28124 - at the Fillmore & Western Railway. This car was used in the recent motion picture "Water for Elephants"

Denver & Rio Grande 62962 at the WPRM in Portola.

I love that old rolling stock of the composite era. John White's book, The American Railroad Freight Car is a treasure trove of photos and drawings of this early rolling stock. Aesthetically, I believe this is some of the handsomest railroad equipment that ever was, but it comes from an era that few care about.

YUP! love the old stuff. PRR X31a built May 1936, work in progress.
One of the first early steel boxcars.

Thanks for sharing.

Scott

We own 3 unrestored old N&W boxcars, including an outside braced USRA single sheathed wooden car. I love all of them, in spite of the carping from my predecessor as CMO that "we need to scrap those pieces of junk"

Gary - Glad your former CMO didn't get his way! Hoosier Valley Railroad Museum in North Judson, Indiana has a Norfolk & Western 40' steel boxcar recently repainted back into its old in-service road number as N&W 54880.

Les

We are hoping to recover this gem from nr Cheyenne..... 1890's Union Pacific Railway California Fast freight Line car.

Eventually

Mike Pannell

Since the subject of this thread is a Chicago Great Western boxcar, I just wondered if any boxcars from the CGW (wood or steel) have been preserved?

Les

IRM has a 40' PS-1 from the Great Western, albeit unrestored at this time:

http://www.irm.org/gallery/CGW5643

Frank -

Nice car! Thanks for the info. BTW, I see that one of the closeup photos of CGW 5643 shows "NdeM" but I'm not sure as to in what context. Can you clue me in?

Les

I have no idea, though perhaps Bob Kutella can chime in if he's reading RyPN these days. Just a wild guess - maybe it was sold (or was due to be sold) to NdeM but not moved, then resold to IRM?

Thanks for the book recommendation, Ron.

Amazon has a preview of the book on-line, so I read through some of it. The writing is good and content is interesting, and I can see that the author "gets it" as far as aesthetics of these wood and composite cars. The author writes:
"Beauty is not a factor commonly associated with railroad freight equipment, but there is something handsome in a robust or rustic way about most of these cars. This sturdy 40-footer [photo] was built late in the wooden era (1913) by Haskell & Barker of Michigan City, Ind."

I'll order the book.