Boxcars

JPS posted:

Are boxcars a thing of the past?

Pretty much, yes. Trailer on flat car and containers are the way to ship stuff from door-to-door, which generally can no longer be accomplished with boxcars.

Been watching the video feed of Horseshoe Curve for a few days and have not seen a single box car in any consist.

Seems like all 'stuff' is in single or double stacks or trailers.

As far as modeling will stick with '50s and '60s  but the stacks seem way duller than the range of boxcars that used to be out there.

I watch Horseshoe Curve webcam pretty regularly along with several other locations on the Virtual Railfan network.  I rarely see a manifest train that doesn’t have boxcars.

Curt

JPS posted:

Are boxcars a thing of the past?

Been watching the video feed of Horseshoe Curve for a few days and have not seen a single box car in any consist.

Seems like all 'stuff' is in single or double stacks or trailers.

As far as modeling will stick with '50s and '60s  but the stacks seem way duller than the range of boxcars that used to be out there.

Might depend on what part of the country you live in.  Or else what train line you live close by.

For instance, I can go rail-fanning either the U.P. or BNSF at a handful of different main lines each within about a 40~50 mile radius or so here in the N.E. Kansas area where I live.  Some lines seem to run mostly unit coal trains.  Other lines might feature mostly stack trains.  One line featuring stack trains also includes the occasional road-railer train and unit tank train.  Another line or two seem to cater to mixed freights, including box cars.  I still see a fair amount of box cars amongst all the other car types in the local yards.

Based on my observations, I wouldn't say that boxcars are a thing of the past.  Although I will admit that they aren't as quite as ubiquitous as they once were. 

I have a on line customer in my hone town of Murfreesboro TN that regularly receives loaded boxcars. I have seen as many as seven or eight of them spotted there at a time. It has made me wonder if boxcars are coming back. 

Evidently a lot of the box cars currently in circulation are reaching their mandatory 50 year retirement soon. The paper industry, which still uses them, has been pushing to get new ones built but due to the limited return of investment and higher priorities (i.e. complaint oil tank cars) there hasn't been much movement.

One article on box cars disappearing:

America's boxcar pool has a leak in CSX

Here in Southern Oregon----we have the "lumber train" run through every day hauling the goods away from several mills.  No shortage of boxcars. Plenty of lumber racks. but the boxcars are a guarantee of keeping precipitation off the plywood and particle board.  STILL quite a few "Rail Box" 50'ers with double doors around here. -Salty Rails-

RootBeerRail posted:

Evidently a lot of the box cars currently in circulation are reaching their mandatory 50 year retirement soon. The paper industry, which still uses them, has been pushing to get new ones built but due to the limited return of investment and higher priorities (i.e. complaint oil tank cars) there hasn't been much movement.

One article on box cars disappearing:

America's boxcar pool has a leak in CSX

This is one reason GATX and TTX owned boxcars are becoming more prevalent.  Since demand is not uniform across the North American network; leased equipment can be redirected to where it’s needed; saving the individual railroads the expense of investing in equipment only to have it sit.  A definite no-no in today’s PSR driven railroad world.

Curt

the last time i drove from CA to Texas, of all the trains that i passed, there were only two mixed freights w/ a few boxcars.  the other ~90% were unit trains... stacks, tanks, autos or hoppers.

For my part here in n.c.I see a lot of covered hoppers and tankcars and centerbeam flatcars.I do not see as many boxcars as I used to.And I find that sad because boxcars where the way to ship.But every now and then I will see string of them in a mixed freight.I was in charlotte and around the charlotte observer news paper.Have a rail spar and I seen a few boxcars.And boxcars had a door opened inside was big rolls of papper.But I do see a lot more auto racks along with double stacks.

TTX has acquired a large number of high-cube 60' plug-door box cars with the TBOX reporting marks in the past 3 years.

There are new high-cube 50' box cars for IC, UCRY, COER. They were built in the past 2 years. 

Most new box cars built by Greenbrier seem to be painted a shade of red or brown if owned by railroads.

Andrew

Falcon Service

I still see a lot of boxcars on the mixed manifest trains (CN) around here. Like Andrew said lots of 60' ones and some 50'. The traditional 40' ones are pretty much a thing in the past. You are correct about Horseshoe Curve though. The trains I've seen too seem to be mostly stack and coal ones.

Rob