What freight cars looked like in 1967

[Mark5]

There were still cars with wood running boards.

I don't know know if there were any interchange restrictions on them, but they were still in use.

Jason

I don't remember seeing any, so I'm gonna say pretty rare.

Well the memory is the first thing to go. 

In 1967 there will still plenty of wood side cars, 'X-29' type cars, 1932 ara cars and 1937 box cars (as examples). All of which could still have wood running boards.

There are ample amounts of photos that show this.


Jason

Always the wise guys that were'nt there to tell us the way it was ... 

On the other hand I never watched from bridges (Do'h!)

My memories are 1965 & up mainly.

Yeah I have pix of some wood car like FGEX - and I remember seeing a few.

I'm gonna stick with rare. Show me some video of them in a train. You won't find many.

Other old timers please chime in ...

http://prr.railfan.net/freight/classpage.html?class=X29

Mark (I might have to change my tune on this though)

[Mark5]

1945      Wood roofwalks/running boards outlawed on new cars

that's what i meant - sure there were cars with wood roofwalks that were built prior to that date still in active service in 1967.

here's a few cars with wood roofwalks - not sure if they are from interchange

http://www.railpictures.net/images/d1/8/9/0/5890.1169179200.jpg

-Steve

Nice pic!

[wcfn100]

You can also identify 1967 with the paint schemes on your rolling stock.

The SCL merger and GN Big Sky Blue paint were both in 1967.  There are also mergers that happened a bit earlier that you can still get three paint scheme from like Erie Lackawanna (EL, ERIE, DL&W were all still used in '65).  M&Stl Cars could be found in original paint or in CNW paint w/ M&St.L initials.  I'm sure there are many more examples like this.

TTX had also relettered all (according to the 1967 ORER ) of the QTTX 60' flat cars to OTTX.  The 'story' goes that the cars would get dirty and would get written down wrong as OTTX anyways.

Here's an interesting shot.


http://jimsands2.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=68707

If you look at the GT cars you'll see one has had the walk removed and the ladders shortened while the other still carries the wood running boards.


Jason

[asciibaron]

If you look at the GT cars you'll see one has had the walk removed and the ladders shortened while the other still carries the wood running boards.

now you see where i'm going - the 1966-1974 time frame saw a large shift in rolling stock and you can have a bunch of fun trying to capture that era.  i'm sticking to 1967 since it's the last full year of the PRR.  tons of paint schemes, but i miss the CP multi-mark and the green of BN.  i get to still have some NKP, P&WV, and Wabash equipment roaming the rails.

i have been watching some videos i have of the last months of PRR and the variety of rolling stock is very telling - railroads were changing, fast.

-Steve

[Iain]

A lot of the equipment looks like modern stuff, and then you have the Norfolk Southern boxcar on the far right with friction trucks and roofwalk.  The trucks also give a sense of era.

[Bob Bufkin]

Some cars lasted a little longer in pre merger paint.  This one (which I've posted before) was a shot from 1974 or 75.


I also remember seeing the wooden FGE cars still in decent shape during this timeframe.

[jmlaboda]

"no Allied Full Cushion trucks"

That's not true.  While the Allied Full Cushion trucks were banned from interchange they were seen in a number of cases, especially so under former troop cars that were converted to MofW service.

"roof walks removed from older cars"

That's not true.  Older cars retained them, many times, well into the 70s, and a lot of cars, even though they lost the roof walks, in the 70s retained full height ladders, making for some very dangerous situations, especially so for trespassers.

"no archbar trucks"

Again, that's not true.  While barred from interchange service there were still cars that had them in both freight and MofW service.

"Roller bearing trucks were not yet required so a lot of older plain bearing trucks to be found."

The use of roller bearing trucks started back during the steam era, mainly on more advanced steam.  The use of roller bearings in old trucks by 1967 were very common, the difference from the old trucks and the new being that the roller bearing ends were not visible, though the car would always have a stencile indicating they were so equipped.  As time progressed, probably as just a matter to simplify maintenance, the former hatch that was used for the greased waste that was dropped into the journal ends for the old friction bearings began to be removed, revealing the roller bearing axle ends through the opening, but many of these trucks continued to soldier on, as long as there were no flaws found in them during periodic inspections.

[3rdrail]

1967 was the middle of the "jumbo" era, when 50 and 70 ton cars were being replaced by 100 ton cars, with some railroads, PRR among them, fighting the heavier cars. For example, PRR had two tank cars, with six axles, that it tried to interest shippers in, rather than four axle 100 tonners. By 1967, about half of the tank car fleet was still 11,000 gallon cars or smaller. The vast majority of grain still moved in boxcars - Signode still sold lots and lots of grain doors. I was covering South Louisiana for the PRR in 1967...

BTW, PRR lost the battle, but the other railroads lost the war. Derailments really blossomed with the advent of 100 tonners. PRR had said the track structure was not ready for 100 tonners, and it was right. Revenues went down with heavier cars, but expenses shot up. The 1970's saw lots of railroad bankruptcies, didn't it?

[up1950s]

"no Allied Full Cushion trucks"

That's not true.  While the Allied Full Cushion trucks were banned from interchange they were seen in a number of cases, especially so under former troop cars that were converted to MofW service.

"roof walks removed from older cars"

That's not true.  Older cars retained them, many times, well into the 70s, and a lot of cars, even though they lost the roof walks, in the 70s retained full height ladders, making for some very dangerous situations, especially so for trespassers.

"no archbar trucks"

Again, that's not true.  While barred from interchange service there were still cars that had them in both freight and MofW service.

"Roller bearing trucks were not yet required so a lot of older plain bearing trucks to be found."

The use of roller bearing trucks started back during the steam era, mainly on more advanced steam.  The use of roller bearings in old trucks by 1967 were very common, the difference from the old trucks and the new being that the roller bearing ends were not visible, though the car would always have a stencile indicating they were so equipped.  As time progressed, probably as just a matter to simplify maintenance, the former hatch that was used for the greased waste that was dropped into the journal ends for the old friction bearings began to be removed, revealing the roller bearing axle ends through the opening, but many of these trucks continued to soldier on, as long as there were no flaws found in them during periodic inspections.

Many UP stock cars in the 50's for Livestock Dispatch had rollers put in friction bearing trucks . The UP painted the friction bearing covers on those yellow as a alert to the crew that they were not to be wadded .

[cv_acr]

A lot of the equipment looks like modern stuff, and then you have the Norfolk Southern boxcar on the far right with friction trucks and roofwalk.  The trucks also give a sense of era.

The brand new DWC flatcar says that photo is most likely 1973-74. That's when that series was built.

[asciibaron]

my comments are regarding interchange traffic - the bulk of the stuff one saw trackside was interchange track on a Class I mainline - which is what i'm modeling after all. 

never-the-less, some good info in this thread

[randgust]

One of the schemes that was 'new' right then was the Indian Red and Black "Shock Control" scheme on the Santa Fe.  It stood out like CRAZY, and pretty much kicked off the 60's-70's era of bright color and more modern graphics.

To me, that's one of the 60's things.  Big bold color for the first time.  ATSF red.  GN blue, The NH McGinnis schemes, Boom, in your face, non-freight-car-red stuff.

[Mark5]

Yeah the sixties were VERY colorful on average.

Kinda started in the mid 50s ...

http://www.gngoat.org/circus_boxcars.htm