40' M53 Boxcars in the 70s

[randgust]

The ex-BR&P lines (B&O) had at least three that were hanging around into the early 1980's.   Two were storage cars at Salamanca, NY and went down with the shop demolition.    I think they were parked storage containers, possibly detrucked, couldn't see through the brush.

The third was a detrucked one used as a storage shed at Marienville, PA - I think it made it right up until Kovalchick sold off everything for scrap after the K&K closed.   It was really in good shape, just detrucked.   I suspect it is still somewhere as a storage shed.

I did a lot of photos of freight cars in the 70's, particularly old 40' cars, and I never saw a B&O wagontop in service on the B&O or anyplace else.  The Mt. Jewett branch was like a Jurassic Park of equipment, too, with 50-ton hoppers and small fuel-tank GP's.   But down around the York area the 'black hole' of obsolete freight cars was the Ma & Pa for sure, and the stuff they cast off ended up on the Stewartston.   A few years ago they still had an amazing collection of obsolete junk parked on a spur at New Freedom.

You also have to remember that cars 'aged out' for interchange from the original build date, if not completely rebuilt.    The testimony for that was the fleet of 40' PRR X-29's that ended up dumped in Warren for a while in the mid-70s with the stenciling '40 year old car not to be used for offline shipment'.  The whole yard was packed with those for a while, and the local agent said that Harrisburg just sent them for storage.  He christened it the 'junk of the month club' and I liked that.

The other alternative is to white-line them and simply use them for MOW service, or park them on a siding and let trees grow up around them.  A good example of that was two A&A 40' boxcars marooned in Mayville, NY years and years after the PC tracks left - storage cars still on trucks for an adjacent industry once served by rail.    I found one like this once in Belfast, ME on the B&ML and it was an ex-MEC 40 single-sheathed box that had been built into a shed sometime in the 30's.   Still had K brakes and a vertical brakestaff!   it's now in the Savannah Roundhouse Railroad Museum.  In both these cases an industry bought a car NOT from the connecting railroad and had it delivered, and bought it as a supplemental shed.  Kept all the paint, never took it off the wheels, just let it rust.    There's six covered hoppers like that in Slidell, LA, marooned and used as plastics pellet silos.  Happens more than you think.

Ed, I've also got a 1975 ORER at your service if you need to know who has one.  Useful if you're trying to find out if particular cars were still running if you know the reporting marks.

[Ed Kapuscinski]

After some investigation, it sounds like the answer is going to be adding a COTS stencil, an ACI placard, and some weathering. Then slapping it behind my PC S2 for spotting wherever some shipper will still deal with 40' boxcars, possibly for its last trip back to the AM.

[Point353]

I finally picked up one of the Allegheny Midland FVM wagon top cars over the weekend and I've decided I want to do it up as a 70's car.
I'm looking for some reference pics for what fun things to do to it (ACI label, etc...).
I've found a few, but if you have any good pics of B&O M53s or NKP 40' cars in the 70s, I'd love to see them.

There are a few photos on the http://www.rr-fallenflags.org/bo/bo-frt.html site of wagontops still in service into the early 70's:
http://www.rr-fallenflags.org/bo/bo375633wba.jpg
http://www.rr-fallenflags.org/bo/bo376095akg.jpg

[bman]

The 1 box car 375633 photo sure look like Buckeye Yard on PC.  1971 is just a bit too early for me for PC(as if that's even possible in PC's short lifespan right?). Wonder how long that car soldiered on past 1971?  Those wagon top cars are kinda neat.

[randgust]

Even given those two car numbers, I can doublecheck the 1975 ORER and report back.

Seeing one in relatively fresh paint with an ACI label on is kind of mind-blowing.   There's what looks like a 1963 date on the one; I'm not a B&O historian but that sure doesn't seem right for either build or rebuild.

I have one of the Quality Craft brass kit ones that I did and it's always been in the display case because I didn't think ANY of them were ever in interchange service by 1972, so this is a nice surprise.  http://www.spookshow.net/freight/qcwagon.html

Those survivor cars don't have the old doors though and the Gloor Craft car appears to be a much older B&O paint scheme.

[Ed Kapuscinski]

There are a few photos on the http://www.rr-fallenflags.org/bo/bo-frt.html site of wagontops still in service into the early 70's:
http://www.rr-fallenflags.org/bo/bo375633wba.jpg
http://www.rr-fallenflags.org/bo/bo376095akg.jpg

Yep! Those are the ones I'm basing my efforts on. I have already squirreled them away in my reference folder

And yeah, they're the ones that made me think this is actually a possibility.

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Even given those two car numbers, I can doublecheck the 1975 ORER and report back.

Seeing one in relatively fresh paint with an ACI label on is kind of mind-blowing.   There's what looks like a 1963 date on the one; I'm not a B&O historian but that sure doesn't seem right for either build or rebuild.

I have one of the Quality Craft brass kit ones that I did and it's always been in the display case because I didn't think ANY of them were ever in interchange service by 1972, so this is a nice surprise.  http://www.spookshow.net/freight/qcwagon.html

Those survivor cars don't have the old doors though.

Ooh, please do check it. I only have an 85 (que surprise).

It's a bummer your older style one won't work, but the FVM AM car has the Youngstown door, so I'm good.

Plus, after all, it IS an Allegheny Midland car. It's not like there's a prototype. Although I guess I can always email Tony about it.

[Mark5]

I've found a few, but if you have any good pics of B&O M53s or NKP 40' cars in the 70s, I'd love to see them.

I have a number of pics of NKP 40 footers in the 70s - anything in particular that you're looking for?

Mark

[Ed Kapuscinski]

I have a number of pics of NKP 40 footers in the 70s - anything in particular that you're looking for?

Mark

How did they weather? What did they look like?

[randgust]

Wow.   January 1975 ORER:

B&O 375693:  series 375000-375795  (796 cars)  31 left

B&O 376095:  Series 376000-377046 (1047 cars) 19 left

So yeah, that's why I never saw any but you can still get away with it!!!!!

[nkalanaga]

Albert:  Thank you.

Randgust:  Thank you, too.  Now I won't have to get rid of mine, in 1974.  I wouldn't anyway, but it's good to know there were a few still running.  B&O cars in general weren't that common in the Northwest, but I do remember seeing at least one wagontop, although WHEN I don't remember.  Probably in the late NP era, before I was taking pictures.

[nscalbitz]

I've posted on Modern Freight Cars List (MFCL) - 1960+ asking about an ORER proof of existence.

Edited off____

[davefoxx]

Ed,

For a hoot, contact Tony Koester and ask him what the AM would have done with its wagon top boxcar fleet in the 1970s.  I double dog dare you.

DFF

[Mark5]

How did they weather? What did they look like?

The photos I have mostly look like this one from 1975 (better in at least one case):

http://canadianfreightcargallery.ca/cgi-bin/image.pl?i=nkp18068&o=nkp

Mark

[Bruce Bird]

More fuel for the date fire- from the January 1976 ORER:

First series down to 26
Second series down to 9

But they're still there....

I swear that growing up in Tuscola, IL way out west on the B&O I remember seeing a few wagontops in the mid 70s.  As for other RRs 40-footers they were quite common along the IC(G) with grain doors, being used by the many small elevators along their lines.