Should We Have A 36' Boxcar In O?

I model a few roads that had them in the northeast. Someone did offer a resin kit that was done for one of the O Scale conventions in the northeast years ago based on a New Haven 36 ft..
Shippers being setup for 36 ft cars. I believe that’s also why the wooden Meat Reefers were still being built new at a late date.

As I see it, 3 rail modelers fall into three basic groups (no priority in the number sequence):

1. The toy train enthusiast. (Often will be subsets.)

2. The Hi Rail enthusiast (Can be subsets.)

3. The fastidious modeler that pursues a high degree of prototype fidelity. (Less subsets in this group.)

Group 1 will not be concerned with either prototype fidelity or other such concerns. Therefore, if they find a 36' car being offered is appealing to their criteria, they could be a small potential market for same. However, if they're closer to the subset spectrum that prefers colorful lithograph type cars (some even 4-wheel types), there will be little, if any, interest in a prototypical 36' car, which would be huge and loom over their tinplate or traditional sized 3 rail equipment.

2. These typically have scale equipment, but MAY mix-in traditional 3 rail models. This group may be a bit more particular as to era than group 1, but they could be more likely to be interested in a prototypical 36' boxcar.

3. This group will likely be concerned with prototypical accuracy in regards to era, perhaps even road name vs car type, etc. IF they are modeling the 1930s-1940s, then they would be inclined to be more interested in a 36' boxcar. IF they are modeling the far more popular transition era (roughly late 1940s to mid-late 1950s), then they would be more interested in 36' refrigerator cars, which lasted into the 50s in much greater numbers than 36' boxcars. IF they model one of the more the modern eras (1970 on), there will be zero interest in a 36' boxcar.

In view of the above, I suspect that the market for a prototypical based 36' boxcar would be very, VERY, slim in 3 rail.

All of the above is merely the way I see it and does not reflect any empirical data.

Andre

Atlas O made this model (3001411) of a 36-foot refrigerated boxcar in 2016 and sold it at MSRP $73.95. Dubuque Packing Company URTX 63052 is based on cars built by the General American Car Company. I like the looks of this car when it’s in a consist with 40-foot wood-sided boxcars. Maybe not prototypical but do you really know everything that is?

MELGAR

Andre covered it.  The only 36'/37' cars on my late 40s era layout are wood meat reefers (brine used for lowering temperatures in the car had less effect on wood cars).  While hard to tell, I have not seen anything that looked like a 36' boxcar (non-reefer) in pictures from the PW or later time frame.  MoW boxcars in the PW era were usually older wood 40' USRA single- or double-sheath cars.  If you modeled the 30s and earlier, I could understand you wanting one of the 36’ cars.

FYI-Reefers were used as non-refrigerated boxcars.  For example, they were used in the reefer mode to transport fruits and vegetables from the west coast to the east coast, and as boxcars to transport newspapers and magazines from the east coast to the west coast.

In general the 2 rail community does not care enough about fidelity to demand more than just generic cars (and we're aging too), it just ain't happening in 2 rail O scale.   And even if we all did care, no one can produce even a somewhat generic RTR model these for a reasonable price and kits have fallen by the wayside.

On the Steam Era Freight Cars list there is an excellent article titled All Short Box Cars, 1930-1959 by Ray Breyer.   There were literally hundreds of thousands of them on the rails, from over 500k in 1930 to 70k in 1950 to 15k in 1960.

Jim King at one time had some intention to do an O scale resin Southern SU car kit but sadly it gained little interest from the two rail community.   It's a gorgeous car but a complex one with a truss rod underframe and uncommon but neat Hutchins or T-Brace ends that can't be scraped from existing tooling.

Love or hate it, RTR and painted sells and kits languish in the box and get sold for fire sale prices.  Not to mention the work to produce patterns for resin cars or molds for injection molded plastic cars.

The common "Howe truss outside braced" 36' box car was very common and the Canadian RRs loved 36' cars. 

If the Korean brass situation would not have changed in the 1990s we would have a slew of them imported.   But the situation changed and the esteemed Pat O'Boyle passed away.

But yes, I'd think a short 36' car would sell well in the 3-rail world.    Even if of generic prototype and with the quality/detail of a standard 3-rail traditional train.

In Houston there’s a major toll road, the Hardy, running from near downtown to the northern burbs. It has a very active UP line in the middle of it. The Bush funeral train took it for a bit. I only drive it 5-6 times a year, and when I do I see all kind of interesting rolling stock. Several times I saw boxcars that looked very short. I’m doing over 75 mph on it so I can’t gaze too long. By the time I ask my wife to take a pic, we’re past them.  I estimate they were in the 30-40 foot range, but it’s hard to be sure.  They looked a little different from normal boxcars as well, so they may have been for a special purpose.

I didn't realize that the 36' boxcar question would generate several deep-dives/answers.

My dive/answer is much shallower: Yes.

36" cars did exist, some lasted a while, they would be an interesting contrast to 40-footers; I have a 36' Atlas reefer, and it has the double-whammy of being both accurate and cute. Yes, cute. Scale but still 027 size, kinda.

I model the Rutland. They only had 36 ft stock cars that featured truss rods. Wanting to model one I went with the Hybrid approach. Mainly because they always seemed to be at the headend of the train I wanted a solid chassis. I purchased the cheapest Atlas Reefer I could find and a Mainline Models stock car kit.

I stand by my statement: You're going to be hard pressed to find any meaningful numbers of 36' wood BOXCARS in general service by the late 1950s into the 1960s.

The only 36' wood house cars that were in service in meaningful numbers during that span of time were 36' wood REFRIGERATOR cars. (And those numbers were fast shrinking yearly and almost gone by the late 1960s.)

Been here, done this. A few years ago I was researching as to whether I could see 36' wood cars in service for my 1964 modeled era. I learned that some of the meat packers did have 36' wood refrigerator cars still in service, but those were generally kept working larger cities with older facilities that still contained buildings with unloading doors on 36' centers. As those structures closed, so to, the demand for 36' wood meat reefers. By the late 1960s, a 36 wood reefer still in service was a very rare car.

From henceforth, as I run across a mid-1950s to mid-1960s pic of cars in yards/etc, I will look it over and keep an eye out for anything that looks like a 36' wood BOXCAR in general service. I highly suspect I am correct in my deductions.

Andre