Favorite Box Car

Here are some of my favorites:

My rail box boxcar is my favorite.  Hobos seem to like it also!

@Tom Morris posted:

Here are some of my favorites:

@Tom Morris posted:

Here are some of my favorites:

Very nice group of southern railroad box cars!

This one is the wife's favorite. G.N.P.

Here’s my fav.

Kind of a Cincinnati thing.

Having spent 20 years designing meat processing equipment I have a soft spot in my heart for packing company themed steel side reefers. Here's an example  of the dozen or so cars I have from Intermountain, Atlas and MTH.

James

My favorite boxcars are the D&SL, which is that Austrian made kitcar painted, lettered, and trucked by me, and the Colorado Midland LaBelle?? built up box car off the bay, as was the CM reefer, which saved me from yet building my kit.

All favorites to me... all local...

@jrstengel posted:

Kind of a Cincinnati thing.

Ahhh... Skyline - a staple when I was at University of Dayton! Who made that car?

@BAR GP7 #63 posted:

ALRIGHT... ENOUGH  OF  THIS  Johan !!!

You are supposed to be showing boxcars from your layout ...........NOT the  REAL ONES.

.......nice work.....thanks for sharing .

My own railroad company.

@Dallas Joseph posted:

ALRIGHT... ENOUGH  OF  THIS  Johan !!!

You are supposed to be showing boxcars from your layout ...........NOT the  REAL ONES.

.......nice work.....thanks for sharing .

Dallas. Thanks again.

Johan

Johan, you’re blending of foreground modeling, and backgrounds is incredibly realistic! I can’t tell where one starts and the other ends. I think we need a tutorial!

@Artie-DL&W posted:

Johan, you’re blending of foreground modeling, and backgrounds is incredibly realistic! I can’t tell where one starts and the other ends. I think we need a tutorial!

Artie. Thanks a lot. I see the whole in my mind and try to move it into the modules of the view. I will be happy to give tips on Landscaping if anyone is interested in them.

Johan

@DaveP posted:

Ahhh... Skyline - a staple when I was at University of Dayton! Who made that car?

The car is from a recent special run from MTH by Dixie Union Station. They currently have several special runs in the works for other Cincinnati area favorites.

My favorite?

Would have to be this one:

That boxcar is the only survivor from my Lindberg Lines HO set I received for Christmas when I was 10 years old back in 1962.

The weathering on it is natural. PLUS... nothing is broken! It has ALL of its corner steps, even!

Every time it glides by in a train, or when handling it during a switching move, the warm feelings I get seeing it makes me smile. This car has run countless laps on simple carpet layouts, and has been in service on EVERY operational HO layout I've built (six of them) since 1962. No doubt it's mileage would be counted in actual miles.

Andre

I recently learned about this Northern New England short line...

My two favorites.  The first,  our beloved Natty Boh reefer (I can’t believe no one has posted this baby.). Secondly, the Apache Beer reefer from the Arizona Brewing Company.

Sorry I don't have a better image, but I really like this one from Atlas.

I don't have a favorite boxcar. Boxcars are my favorite type of freight car due to their varied road names and liveries. I have more boxcars than any other type of rolling stock due to the many different ones available. As a plus, boxcars were interchanged on all of the railroads so all different boxcars would be seen all over the country. That is there biggest appeal to me.

This is probably one of my more unique boxcars and it has a story (don't they all?).  Just a few weeks after receiving my first train set (Christmas 1976) my dad came home from work on January 20, 1977 and gave me this Spirit of '76 State of Georgia boxcar and a Spirit of '76 caboose.  It was the day Jimmy Carter was inaugurated and the first time I remembered an election season.  My dad was no fan of the new president and the feelings soured over the next four years so this was a head scratcher.  He told me it was a historical day and he wanted me to have a souvenir to remember the day.  I received most of my train sets and trains as Christmas and birthday presents so this one was always special since it was just a gift on a random occasion.  My dad was a surgeon and would leave before 6AM and not get home until after 11PM in addition to frequently being called out in the middle of the night.  I didn't see him a lot during the week but he always came home for lunch and dinner and we would play with trains during those times before he went back to work.  Although he was always busy, trains were our thing that we got do do together.  It makes me chuckle today thinking about my dad going to the LHS to buy this boxcar during the work day probably while driving between the hospital and his office.  Almost seven years after losing my dad, it's been fun seeing this boxcar and getting back into my trains as they are a reminder of the many good times during my youth and the quality time spent with my dad.  If you've ever been to a doctor's office where the waiting room is full and they tell you the doctor is busy or running behind... ya never know, they might be busy making memories for their kid. 😁

(EDIT) 02/22/2022

I've added a long video (with chapters) about this boxcar and the Spirit of '76 caboose #7600

@Mark Holmgren 110217 posted:

When I was in undergrad, the Southern Pacific line through Tempe, AZ lay between my house and the campus. Many an hour I was held up watching long lines of these (and the less visually appealing Hydracushion variant) blocking traffic while undertaking painfully slow switching operations.

It took me 8 years to find this version in O. We should try to get MTH to do a special run of plain, early ‘90s SP boxcars. I think this may be Weaver but it didn’t come with a box. I also think it’s depicting a much older paint scheme but this is the closest I’ve come.

Yes.  Plus UP TTG Express boxcars.  And the UP express boxcar that got damaged when UP 844 and UP 1982 had a wheel slip/ braking incident near San Antonio TX.  Do not know why the express box used on UP's steam trains.  Just gree on me.

@Apple & Orange Line posted:

This is probably one of my more unique boxcars and it has a story (don't they all?).

Beautiful boxcar , story and video Rob.

Thank you for sharing .

Hard to have an absolute favorite, but this guy comes pretty close.

This is my absolute favorite box car:

This is a close second:

It is hard to top a car with Chessie on it (I do NOT like the silhouette Chessie, however)!

Andy

I came from a B&O family and they would have something else to say about that cat.

When I was a kid, my favorite train car was my Dad's old HO scale Tyco "Ralston-Purina" billboard boxcar, after I upgraded to O scale I had to have a copy of it and thankfully found Lionel's MPC era recreation of this beautiful car. I think MTH has a copy of this car too but I'm perfectly fine with this one.

@Andy Hummell posted:

Andy

This B&O is one of my favorites too.

Arnold

@Patrick B posted:

When I was a kid, my favorite train car was my Dad's old HO scale Tyco "Ralston-Purina" billboard boxcar, after I upgraded to O scale I had to have a copy of it and thankfully found Lionel's MPC era recreation of this beautiful car. I think MTH has a copy of this car too but I'm perfectly fine with this one.

I like these!  I need to get some for my future feed mill.

I had some family who were in the feed business and were one of the first Purina dealers in the western U.S.  About 20 years ago, my grandfather's cousin showed me a letter he wrote to Purina in the 1930's when he was in college.  He had researched the company and wrote a paper about Purina feeds and the advanced work they were doing in creating feed to help animals live longer and grow stronger, produce greater yields, etc... So he wrote a letter to Purina, including his college paper and told them his family was in the feed business and that he would be interested in becoming a dealer if they ever expanded out west.  He also showed me the letter he received back which stated that 'Purina would never expand that far from St. Louis but thanks for your interest, kid'. 

I finally got around to making a video of the Vision line Armour boxcars.  I love these.

I love the Ralston Purina car as well.  It was in my first Tyco set that featured the Union Pacific.  I bought the Atlas 40' reefer of it and love it.  Fantastic.

I think my favorite right now is the PRR X29.    Atlas has done a great model of this car in  many modifications as mentioned above.

The PRR had about 40,000 of this class car and it was the prototype design for the 1923 ARA car which many other roads had.    40,000 cars is more than many RRs had on their roster.

This is a small car - it is 40ft long, but I think 9 or 9 1/2 feet high inside vs 10 or 10 1/2 for more modern cars.    It is an ideal car for modeling the transition era and earlier because there were so many.    Much manufacturing in the North East USA was along Pennsy tracks, so many products were shipped in X29 boxcars to destinations all over the country.    I have seen photos of them on sidings in California for example.    They could show  up on a model of any RR or area of the country.  

And as a PRR fan, the most important thing is that this is a signature car that just says "Pennsylvania RR"

@Apple & Orange Line posted:

I like these!  I need to get some for my future feed mill.

I had some family who were in the feed business and were one of the first Purina dealers in the western U.S.  About 20 years ago, my grandfather's cousin showed me a letter he wrote to Purina in the 1930's when he was in college.  He had researched the company and wrote a paper about Purina feeds and the advanced work they were doing in creating feed to help animals live longer and grow stronger, produce greater yields, etc... So he wrote a letter to Purina, including his college paper and told them his family was in the feed business and that he would be interested in becoming a dealer if they ever expanded out west.  He also showed me the letter he received back which stated that 'Purina would never expand that far from St. Louis but thanks for your interest, kid'.

That's an awesome story, the Lionel Purina cars go for pretty cheap on this forum's """favorite""" auction site so you should definitely be able to track down a car or two for a feed mill industry. With family history like that it would be a perfect addition to a layout, build it close to a wall and frame that letter above it if it's in your possession or a copy of it.