40 foot boxcar rebuild

[Gary S]

Those weights look like .357 slugs...??? Tell me more about "half ladders". This is the first I've heard of such a thing. Up front, it doesn't seem to make much sense as what's the use of climbing a ladder that will only get you half way up? On the other hand, half a ladder also denies access to those who should not be up there.
What's the story if you please?

The weights are .50 caliber black powder rifle bullets shaped with a hammer.

Now... about the roofwalks... my question is, why did they ever put the brake wheels way up at the roof anyway? Why didn't they leave them low so the employees could operate them from the ground instead of having to climb up?

I believe it was 1966 when the AAR (?) passed a rule that rolling stock was no longer allowed to have roofwalks. Any new cars were built with low brake wheels and no roof walks. Of course, covered hoppers that needed roof access to the hatches weren't included. Existing cars had to have the roofwalks removed by 1974. That date was eventually pushed back to 1979.

Some railroads removed the roofwalks but left the ladders and high brake wheels. Others lowered the brake wheel and cut all the ladders in half. Others chose a mixture, like cutting the ladders on the non-brake end down to half ladders, but leaving the ladders on the brake end full height. Most railroads between 1966 and 1979 would have had cars in various states of modification. They didn't just bring all the cars in at one time and make the mod. They did the mod whenever the car passed near a shop that could do the work.

Anyone modeling the late 1960s or early 1970s will need to make the mods.

Most of the typical Athearn Blue Box kits represent the era before 1966. Some of their RTR stuff represents 1966 and later with the half ladders. Of course, the 40 foot boxcars were slowly being phased out and being replaced with 50 footers.

The webpage has some info on modeling LV boxcars that received the modifications:

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