Surviving 36ft Boxcars in the 50s

[sailormatlac]

Hi folks,

Thanks for the insightful answers.

@Charlie: We think similarly. I did exactly the same Google search with little results before asking, but only older Doctorwayne answers popped up! It's why I started to believe they were now longer around.

@Glen: A lot of them indeed were still active but generally in captive service. I've seen countless of old QRL&PCo double sheathed 36ft boxcars on 50s pictures (as far as 1959). A few of them were riding on arch bar trucks and even Fox trucks! Indeed, the lettering was spartan, showing they were no longer used in interchange. I've modelled a few of them a few years ago.

@Doctorwayne: Incendently Erie was an early proponent of Fowler cars and a few were still in service in my era. I recently bought a Westerfield Erie kit. If I understand well, the Su-class still ran on arch-bar truck until 1953? That's interesting! How did you model the peculiar steel/truss road underframe? Did you use drawings or pictures to model yours? You did a terrific job bringing life to these models. The ventilated boxcars are quite interesting for Harlem Station since they received a lot of fresh fruits for New York markets.

@epaw: Do you have more details about the Reading car road numbers or class numbers? I'd be curious to search a little bit more about them. Reading cars were regular at Harlem Station.

Best regards,

Matt