Old wagontop in Texas....Really?

rock island lines · **Joined:** Mon Feb 17, 2014 4:20 pm **Posts:** 487

ATSF 270040.

What do we know about this ATSF car? Build date?

I found an article that says the 270000 series cars were rebuilt beginning at the end of WWII.

Quote:

Reconstruction of the three Bx classes was delayed for some time and started slowly owing to wartime short ages of materials. The first rebuilt cars, classes Bx-41 (former BX-8) and Bx-42 (former Bx-9 and Bx-10), began to emerge from the Santa Fe car shops late in 1944. The assignment of number series 270000-270499 to the Bx-41 class reflected the Santa Fe's intention to rebuild all 500 Bx-8's at this time, but in fact only 135 cars were actually completed as Bx-41's.

Source: Prototype Modeler, 1986

Thomas Cornillie · **Joined:** Sun Apr 29, 2007 7:19 pm **Posts:** 272

In terms of potential preservation priority, the American Refrigerator Transit reefer would be my first priority. About 10 years ago did a search for preserved or extant cars from this line, and only found 1 wood reefer at the St. Louis Museum of Transportation. Given that reefers are hard to scrap, I'm hopeful that it might have been moved somewhere else on the property. Many cars with similar construction exist IRM (has scrapped/will scrap) some similar Milwaukee Road cars soon that could provide parts to make a complete car.

It would be helpful to know what class the wagontop boxcar is? I recent found this page that lists surviving cars the B&O and many other railroads. https://sites.google.com/site/railwaypreservationphotoindex/by-railroad/baltimore-ohio

As a type, there are many B&O wagontop boxcars preserved. However, it is important to keep in mind that the B&O was an early innovator in using specialized boxcars for specific services. This car might be something special, or it could duplicate one of many other preserved examples.

A good place to ask about these (and other freight cars - such as the boxcar in Maumee, OH) is the Steam Era Freight Car list: https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/STMFC/info. I have found that the members of this list are very keen at identifying carbody details that give clues about construction and rebuilding dates, which are very helpful in evaluating the significance of a car.

Cjbdiesel · **Joined:** Wed Apr 24, 2013 10:17 pm **Posts:** 96

Thomas Cornillie wrote:

In terms of potential preservation priority, the American Refrigerator Transit reefer would be my first priority. About 10 years ago did a search for preserved or extant cars from this line, and only found 1 wood reefer at the St. Louis Museum of Transportation. Given that reefers are hard to scrap, I'm hopeful that it might have been moved somewhere else on the property. Many cars with similar construction exist IRM (has scrapped/will scrap) some similar Milwaukee Road cars soon that could provide parts to make a complete car.

It would be helpful to know what class the wagontop boxcar is? I recent found this page that lists surviving cars the B&O and many other railroads. https://sites.google.com/site/railwaypreservationphotoindex/by-railroad/baltimore-ohio

As a type, there are many B&O wagontop boxcars preserved. However, it is important to keep in mind that the B&O was an early innovator in using specialized boxcars for specific services. This car might be something special, or it could duplicate one of many other preserved examples.

A good place to ask about these (and other freight cars - such as the boxcar in Maumee, OH) is the Steam Era Freight Car list: https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/STMFC/info. I have found that the members of this list are very keen at identifying carbody details that give clues about construction and rebuilding dates, which are very helpful in evaluating the significance of a car.

It's a standard M-53 class. Isn't fitted for autoparts, as evident by the standard doors. Only other thing it could've served as was an REA box and later repainted, but we don't have a number so we'll probably never know for sure.

As for the comment about "many other preserved examples", there's 2 M-53 class boxcars on rails and 1 M-15 wooden boxcar rebuild on rails. I know there's a few scattered out in the midwest on farms, but they're just rusting heaps now and rarely documented. If it could be saved, it should. One of the few examples of a steel boxcar before the late 40's-late 50's.

- Christian B.

1702 · **Posted:** Sat Mar 24, 2018 11:50 pm

Found the names & address of the current owners of the lot where the boxcars reside. If anyone's interested in contacting them to get permission to take a closer look without trespassing and to discuss the future of the boxcars, send me a PM.

Jim Tatum

Les Beckman · **Joined:** Tue Aug 02, 2005 1:25 pm **Posts:** 6468

Jim -

Thanks for finding out this information. Hopefully, some organization might be interested enough to at least look into it further.

Les

PMC · **Joined:** Sat Oct 17, 2015 5:55 pm **Posts:** 2615

There is apparently a B&O wagontop in OK also (Michael R Valentine‎ photos):
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid ... ater&ifg=1

Old wagontop in Texas....Really?

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