1937 AAR Boxcars

[Guest 30-something]

Hi Folks

 

Wonder if someone can help me here...

 

I've been offered a number of N Gauge boxcars that are all 1937 40ft AAR based models (Intermountain), can anyone tell me how long they lasted in service?

 

Im planning a layout based in the late 60'/early 70's

 

Cheers

 

Joe

[Allegheny1600]

Hi Joe,

There is a "40 year" rule in the USA which (i believe) states that cars older than 40 years cannot be used any further - on interchange service i.e. between railroads.

This would take you to 1977 for the earliest built cars, although by that time things like roofwalks and high ladders will have had to be removed.

You could ignore this anyway and use your cars as "railroad only" i.e. MoW cars but then, strictly they'd need a repaint!

But it's your railway and if you like them anyway, why not run them?

HTH,

John E.

[Oldddudders]

I've been offered a number of N Gauge boxcars that are all 1937 40ft AAR based models (Intermountain), can anyone tell me how long they lasted in service?

 

Im planning a layout based in the late 60'/early 70's

By your chosen era, 40' boxcars were less common, but the real problem comes if they have roofwalks, as I think these were banned on cars in common use from 1966.

[Glorious NSE]

Roofwalks were gradually removed from the late 60s and I think there was a mid 70s "must be done by" date but there's evidence that the occasional example still had them into the 80s - in HO the Intermountain ones have separate ladders so "modernising" them is just a case of removing the roofwalk and shortening the ladder at the non-brakewheel end (the ones at the brakewheel end usually, but not always stayed high) - if they are moulded on in N (are they?) that's harder to do but you might get away with just removing the roofwalk and ignoring the high ladder?

 

If they are in 1930s paint schemes you'll need to weather them lots, however there are some 60s/70s paint jobs available RTR on 40' cars as they seemed to do repaints more often back then, so just because it says 1937 it doesn't neccesarily mean it's suitable for then.

 

As a generalisation 40's don't seem to have been that rare at the start of the 70s but the big splurge on brand new modern "pool" boxcars during that decade followed by a serious recession at the end of the decade would have finished off virtually all survivors, especially those ones brushing up against the 40 yr rule

[Guest 30-something]

Thanks for the replies

 

I've found out that roofwalks had to be removed by 1974, later extended to 1979 so I can get away with a few 40' cars!

[highpeak]

Forty foot cars were still quite common into the mid to late 70s, though as GloriousNSE points out, they were rapidly eliminated after that for a number of reasons. But AAR statistics for the mid70s show about 138,000 40' cars in the general purpose boxcar fleet out of a total of just under 303,000 cars. (source: Feb 1979 Railroad Model Craftsman)

Removal of running boards took quite a long time and you could still see cars with running boards in the late 70s, but by then they were very much the exception. Some roads did a very thorough job, moving the handbrake to a lower position, others did just the minimum, removing the running boards but no more. This Southern car has received the full job, possibly as part of a rebuild:

Rebuilds of 40' cars were fairly common, quite often in an effort to provide wider doors as well as extend the life of the car. Maine Central had 400 of these 1937 AAR cars built by Magor in 1942. Some of them were hacked around to make pulpwood cars (removal of the roof and alteration of doors), some were insulated for woodpulp service, some had a truck upgrade to 50 ton trucks, finally in 1970 the remaining 300 were sold and leased back after rebuilding with wider doors. They were all still on the roster in 1977 but disappeared shortly after when the lease expired.

Here's a listing of the 1937 AAR fleet as built: http://www.steamfreightcars.com/prototype/frtcars/1937aarpdfmain.html.

[Glorious NSE]

This is how BN dealt with de-roofwalking:

 

Brakewheel end of a 40' car (in 1980 still in late 50's/early 60s paint)

http://www.railcarphotos.com/PhotoDetails.php?PhotoID=38001

The side and end ladders at the brakewheel end remain full height, the roofwalk comes off but there's a new L shaped handrail on the roof at the corner (where there used to be one on the side of the roofwalk) to give the guy setting the brake wheel something to hang on to. There's also a yellow sticker as seen on many cars with "This car no running board" or similar lettering.

 

http://www.railcarphotos.com/PhotoDetails.php?PhotoID=38000

And on the right is what happened at the other end, you just torch the top half off both the end and side ladders - simples!

 

My impression (and given I was only born in '74 and half a planet away) is that the BN predecessors had been a bit half-hearted at de-roofwalking, only doing it to stuff that had a major refurb and repaint - when BN took over they had other things to deal with at first so there was a real "rush job" in 1973/4 to try and get cars modified to beat the ban - when that was extended it was back to business as usual and ignoring them unless the cars were refurbished or repainted.

 

1978 - still with roofwalk:

http://www.railcarphotos.com/PhotoDetails.php?PhotoID=8723

 

1980 - still with roofwalk:

http://www.railcarphotos.com/PhotoDetails.php?PhotoID=8722

[Mike Boucher]

Hi there,

 

Thanks for the replies

 

I've found out that roofwalks had to be removed by 1974, later extended to 1979 so I can get away with a few 40' cars!

 

If you look at this google maps image, you'll see that even with a 2010 based layout, you can get away with a few...

 

http://maps.google.c...code=&q=waltham,+ma&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=56.331468,93.691406&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Waltham,+Middlesex,+Massachusetts&ll=42.37455,-71.23312&spn=0.001625,0.002859&t=h&z=19

 

This is still an "active" siding, in that they've never removed the turnout, but those four 40' cars have been parked there since I moved to Waltham, MA, in 1992. Several are Boston & Maine in the McGinnis scheme, and one is an old New Haven car. The 5th car in the image (to the right of the building, under the trees, on a very short siding) is a 50' steel B&M milk car.

 

They're WAY past the date where they could be used in interchange service, but it just goes to show that they're not all gone yet!

 

BTW - notice all the roofwalks are gone!

 

BTW II - just at the edge of the photo, on the other side of Elm street from the cars, is a still actively used brick signal tower. Not too many of those left either.