Surviving 36ft Boxcars in the 50s

[sailormatlac]

While the Southern's Su-class boxcars did have truss rods, they also had steel underframes.

Steel underframes were required on all cars built after Jan. 1, 1927, or re-built after July 1, 1928. All-wood underframes, including steel-girthed centre sills, were prohibited in interchange after Jan. 1, 1940, but truss rods on composite underfames weren't banned from interchange until Jan. 1, 1952.

Wayne

Ray Breyer did a quite extensive search on 36 footer and how long they survived.

http://designbuildop.hansmanns.org/accur...type-data/

Basically, most stuff was scrapped by 1950 and only a few roads stuck with them up to 1952 or 1954 (depending which banned was in effect - brake gear or underframe). Cars that survived that era were in MoW or updated oddities (melon cars are a good example). I'm seriously thinking about moving my era from 1952 to 1948 or 1952 to have more choices.

Matt