Boxcar Sunday, Let's see your boxcars.

Williams PRR brass boxcar on Atlas cement flex track.

For this fine Sunday .... it's apple picking season and these fellers are getting ready to load this reffer with barrels of apples.  This is a Weaver car I purchased back in the mid 2000s from Just Trains DE for $20.00 brand new.  I with I would have purchased a couple more.  

The photographer caught a B&O M-26 boxcar at the public delivery track sometime in late 1949.  He was also excited about getting a shot of the brand new 1949 Peterbilt tractor with a new trailer painted for Campbell's.  This day the PDT was busy.

The B&O M-26 was a copy of the PRR X-29.  The M-26, and its 2-door version M-27, made up nearly 55% of B&O's boxcar roster in 1950.  B&O's wagontop boxcars are very popular for the modeler, but they made up only 15% of B&O's boxcar fleet.  Here is a B&O M-53 wagontop.

M-26 is Atlas, M-53 is Weaver.

Boxcar Sunday. An SW1 switcher pulling an SP boxcar and bobber caboose.

Speaking of apple picking (and eating!) season, here's a Mariposa Apples reefer from Williams. Encouraged by Boxcar Sunday, it's one of the first five o-scale boxcars/reefers I got:

The graphic is quite nice:

The Williams cars are quite nice for the price, too. This one was only $32 delivered.

@Krieglok posted:

Nice cars Dave and Melgar.

I like the later 40 footers with the relatively modern lettering. Weaver did a great job on that GT boxcar.

Atlas makes a nice reefer. What is the length of that car?

Here are some cars I painted. Atlas, Weaver and MTH. It seems when I paint and decal a car, I find a commercially produced version in the same scheme. So much for being unique…lol

Tom

Yours are likely better, Tom!

Lionel:

Happy Sunday boxcar fans, I'll start this week with an Atlas Boston & Maine 50-foot boxcar.

Buffalo Creek. LCAC

Boxcars in their natural habitat.   Left ... Pennsy by MTH.  Right ... Great Northern by Weaver.  I weathered both.

All of these are re-paints and most of them are All Nation kits, some with new styrene sides.  I still love those old wood/metal kits!

@Brother_Love posted:

All of these are re-paints and most of them are All Nation kits, some with new styrene sides.  I still love those old wood/metal kits!

Those are beautiful you did a great job on them. I still have a few more All Nations to finish like you there’s something about restoring these old kits.

Tis the season!

thanks!

- Mario

Here’s my offering for this Boxcar Sunday . It’s a old Weaver GN

OK, I'll bite on this fine early autumn Sunday morning. Here's a K-line Union Pacific from the steam era.

A boxcar in the making:

Great stuff everyone! Thanks for all the contributions!

Here are some southern themed cars I have done. Various makers with mainly K4 decals…

Tom

@Krieglok posted:

Great stuff everyone! Thanks for all the contributions!

Here are some southern themed cars I have done. Various makers with mainly K4 decals…

Tom

Love your work, Tom. Hey, isn’t your last day with the NJT coming up soon? 🤔

Tom,

Love your cars and I use lots of K4 decals too.  What kind of paint (boxcar red) are you using?  I am just about out of my Scalecoat stash.

Malcolm

Last week, I ran New York Central boxcars #161523 and #92102 behind MTH NYC GP9 #6001. NYC #161523 is a double-sheathed wood boxcar built to the USRA design in 1919 – model by MTH. NYC #92102 is a steel boxcar with an experimental paint color – model by K-Line. I try not to be repetitive but I’ve posted these before and don’t have too many boxcars...

MELGAR

Well BxCrSun fans, with all these beautiful, scale box cars presented by the previous crew, I thought I might take a slightly different perspective.  What would those young people of the 1920's have played with on their layouts?  So here are a couple of American Flyer "Automobile Cars" from that era.

First the red #1112 (note these cars in 8 wheel form were all catalogued by American Flyer as #1115 but as is common with early Flyer (and others) the number lithographed on the car was often (not always) #1112.  Why??? That information friends is lost to history!   This red version dates from 1919-1935 but this one is more likely to be from the middle 1920's to the early 1930's.  The very late versions of the #1112 seem all to be lithographed #1115...(yes its confusing )

So here is an actual #1115 but this car is somewhat earlier than the red version, this one I actually have a more exact date on and its ca 1927.  The dating feature being the orange roof along with the yellow body color.

OK so much for the tinplate era stuff.  Dave Ripp started us off with a beautiful 50 ft B&M boxcar by Atlas so not to be left behind, here is the Marx version of the same car in 40 ft size offered by Marx in 1952,1955, and 1957.

Well happy Sunday to all, here's hoping your upcoming week goes well

Best Wishes

Don

You know, after taking a closer look at the UP box car I posted above, I'm a bit confused regarding what appear to be 3 different dates or years on the side. Maybe someone could explain this or clear up my confusion with all these numbers.

In the first photo above, does this mean it was built in Omaha in May, 1940?

In the second photo, what does the OM. 8-54 in the lower right side mean?

And in the third photo, what would B-50-27 mean?

If any of you Union Pacific box car experts could explain this, that would be terrific. 🤔

@Yellowstone Special posted:

Love your work, Tom. Hey, isn’t your last day with the NJT coming up soon? 🤔

Thanks Vern! This coming Thursday, September 28 is my last day. Feels surreal lol…

@Brother_Love posted:

Tom,

Love your cars and I use lots of K4 decals too.  What kind of paint (boxcar red) are you using?  I am just about out of my Scalecoat stash.

Malcolm

Hi Malcom. Thank you! My work pales in comparison to yours!

I have been using Tru-Color glossy boxcar red for the most part. I also use Tamiya Hull Red for a slightly redder hue. I am a spray can guy until I get the time to improve my airbrush setup and skills.

I have a couple cans of Scalecoat Boxcar red #1.

@Yellowstone Special posted:

You know, after taking a closer look at the UP box car I posted above, I'm a bit confused regarding what appear to be 3 different dates or years on the side. Maybe someone could explain this or clear up my confusion with all these numbers.

In the first photo above, does this mean it was built in Omaha in May, 1954?

In the second photo, what does the OM. 8-54 in the lower right side mean?

And in the third photo, what would B-50-27 mean?

If any of you Union Pacific box car experts could explain this, that would be terrific.

Vern, the 5-40 is the original build date. The OM54 date is the last time the car was weighed for a tare weight. The last number, B-50-27 is likely a car class identification by the owning railroad…

Tom

@Krieglok posted:

Thanks Vern! This coming Thursday, September 28 is my last day. Feels surreal lol…

Hi Malcom. Thank you! My work pales in comparison to yours!

I have been using Tru-Color glossy boxcar red for the most part. I also use Tamiya Hull Red for a slightly redder hue. I am a spray can guy until I get the time to improve my airbrush setup and skills.

I have a couple cans of Scalecoat Boxcar red #1.

Vern, the 5-40 is the original build date. The OM54 date is the last time the car was weighed for a tare weight. The last number, B-50-27 is likely a car class identification by the owning railroad…

Tom

Oh my gosh Tom, this Thursday! A stand-out milestone in your life after a long railroading career. Good for you and congratulations.

And I really appreciate your interpretation of all those box car numbers. Thanks a million. 🙏

@Krieglok- Tom congratulations on your retirement!  I have been fully retired since 2021 and will admit that I don't miss working at all!  Think of it this way...Now you can post on ALL the "Day of the Week" posts    Best wishes and the best of luck for your "new" future.

Best Wishes

Don

@Don McErlean, wow, you posted earlier than me again, beautiful box cars, oldies, and in beautiful condition…but I was a kid near the time they were on the market,???!, (born in 1944)… My C&EI car is Atlas O, others Lionel…. Happy Box Car Sunday, hi Lee Drennen, the thread starter…..

@leapinlarry- Hello Mate!  You and I were born the same year..'44  Love the "Buy Warbonds" C &EI car and the A.E.C. car (does it glow in the dark?)  I just really like those loooooooong box cars of yours Larry.  If I put one of those on my layout I would have to couple the caboose to the front of the loco ! 

Best wishes

Don

Pennsy X-23 and X-26 boxcars; it took me a while to learn the difference because a description of the X-26 was inaccurate and made me think the X-26 was a rebuild of the X-23.

The X-23, and its double door version X-24, were a Pennsy designed single-sheathed (or outside braced) boxcar and the first 40' box car on the railroad.  The Pennsy built over 6,900 in 1912-13 for Line East and West, Vandalia Line and Cumberland Valley.  All cars became PRR in 1920 with system unification but cars were not relettered until 1922.  My layout era is late 1940s, so the X-23 was pretty much gone by then except for a few in MoW service.  I don't think there is an O scale model of the X-23.

The X-26, another single-sheathed design, was one of two United States Railway Administration boxcar designs established by the USRA after it took over the railroads in December 1917.  (The other was the less successful double-sheathed design.)  These standard car designs were developed to ease the car shortage and 25,000 single-sheathed cars were built between 1918 and 1920 and assigned to 26 roads. The Pennsy received 9,900 of these cars.  Too late for the war, they served as a primary boxcar for the Pennsy for a decade with many lasting into the late 1960s in MoW service.   Many X-26 cars were rebuilt in 1945 with larger steel car bodies and reclassified as X-26c.

Altas X-26

Altas X-26c

@Don McErlean posted:

@leapinlarry- Hello Mate!  You and I were born the same year..'44  Love the "Buy Warbonds" C &EI car and the A.E.C. car (does it glow in the dark?)  I just really like those loooooooong box cars of yours Larry.  If I put one of those on my layout I would have to couple the caboose to the front of the loco ! 

Best wishes

Don

The AEC car is #6-26230 and it does, indeed, glow in the dark. It came in several colors, too. Apparently, Lionel produced a whole train's worth of AEC glow-in-the-dark rolling stock and even an AEC glow-in-the-dark GP9! I'm tempted to get a few of these cars to go with my "Toxic Waste" flatcar.

@Krieglok posted:

Thanks Vern! This coming Thursday, September 28 is my last day. Feels surreal lol…

Hi Malcom. Thank you! My work pales in comparison to yours!

I have been using Tru-Color glossy boxcar red for the most part. I also use Tamiya Hull Red for a slightly redder hue. I am a spray can guy until I get the time to improve my airbrush setup and skills.

I have a couple cans of Scalecoat Boxcar red #1.

Vern, the 5-40 is the original build date. The OM54 date is the last time the car was weighed for a tare weight. The last number, B-50-27 is likely a car class identification by the owning railroad…

Tom

Thanks Yom, I’ll try it. The older I get the more I cozy up to the spray cans!

Lionel

@Mark V. Spadaro posted:

Lionel

Um . . . I believe that is a stock car Mark, not a boxcar.

Nevertheless, it's a nice looking one.

@Bill Swatos- Bill your Lionel knowledge is amazing!!  Now I just GOTTA HAVE one of them boxcars!

Don

@Don McErlean posted:

@Bill Swatos- Bill your Lionel knowledge is amazing!!  Now I just GOTTA HAVE one of them boxcars!

Don

Thanks, Don. I really have to credit the internet for that knowledge. There were four colors that I could find: blue, neon yellow, red, and purple. The colors fade to varying degrees based on light exposure and is particularly evident if the owner "energized" the phosphor in sunlight.

For this week I'll first start by saying happy retirement to Tom Markert "Krieglok". This is Toms first Sunday of retirement after a long railroading carrier. This Weaver Rock Island boxcar is a custom job done by Tom. It's my favorite out of hundreds of boxcars that I own. I had only seen this color in HO or period photos, but Tom made it in O and was nice enough to part with it. Happy Boxcar Sunday to everyone but especially Tom.

Thanks Dave! That Rock Island car is one of my favorites! I may do a couple more!

Here is my contribution this week. I just finished these cars yesterday. All MTH, two 19th century cars and one Premier car.

This is one of three Maine Central cars I am doing with K4 decals and Trucolor paint…

Next are two early 1900s cars…an Erie car I basically freelanced with meager photo documentation. I am doing another with a larger diamond logo..see if I can get it right…

Finally, A boxcar looking Reefer I painted after detailing. National Car Company, K4 decals…

Tom

@Yellowstone Special posted:

Um . . . I believe that is a stock car Mark, not a boxcar.

Nevertheless, it's a nice looking one.

It a “Boxy” car…😉

Tom

Here's my boxcars for this fine Sunday!  ... Boxcars in their natural habitat.

B&O Wagontop boxcar by Weaver in both foreground and background.

REA boxcars viewed at eye level.

Scale die cast REA Boxcar by K line

According to data on the car, Boston & Maine steel boxcar #73199 was built in 1942 and weighed 47,300 pounds empty. Model by MTH.

MELGAR

A couple somewhat local to me. The Wellsville and Buffalo was a very short lived line that existed less than a year around 1916. The Wellsville, Addison, and Galeton had a longer life operating about 25 years from the mid ‘50s to the late ‘70s. Both cars done by Crown.

Pete