Can anyone give me a brief history of the demise of the 40 foot boxcar? I know there was a point in time when they were the predominant length of car used, then the 50 footers started edging them out. Perhaps give me a rough percentage of 40 fotter versus 50 footer for each decade? Just trying to get a feel for the mix I need to use on my layout.
It's tired and I'm late, but I think the dawn of much larger locomotives (larger than Atlantics and Ten-Wheelers and Prairies) spelled the end of the road for the 40-footers ... more power equals bigger cars. I think the end started in the late thirties and the 50-footers began to be the predominant freight car in the mid-to-late forties and the 40-footers were beginning to be few and far between by the mid-fifties.
Just my recollection ... without bothering to look it up.
Maybe someone else has the dates ... I'd be interested to see how far off my memory is.
Gary
It depends on era, railraod and location.
I model the late 1960's and there are still a huge number of 40 foot cars I would say 65% of Boxcars were 40'
By the mid to to late 1970's the 40 footers were quickly dissapearing and running out of their usable years. Some were put into MOW service while others were placed in special service I would guess around 35%
Some where still wondering around in the 1980's but I would say they would be less then 10%
Ran across an article concerning shortline boxcars in the February 1979 RMC. The article states the then current percentages of 40 foot boxcars to be 40%, so Greg, you nailed it pretty close with your guesstimation of 35%. I can be somewhat authentic, even moving forward a bit to the early 80s, and run about a 3 to 7 mix of 40 footers to 50 footers.
On another note, the article was quite interesting detailing the reasons behind the incentive per diem rules and how they were implemented by those seeking to maximize profit. It wasn't so much the shortlines that turned the profits, it was the railcar manufacturing and leasing companies that made the money. Reason is that any receipts from the per diem charges had to be invested in new boxcars or in paying off current loans on boxcars. The shortlines did come out on the good end, because they were able to acquire modern boxcars with money they normally would not have gotten.
If anyone is interested in more info, PM me.
cool Gary, I've got to find that article...I run in the mid 40's so 40 footers dominate my fleet of boxes. I do sprinkle in a few 50's here and there. It's just what I have noticed from old films and pics. It seams that at that time there were a lot of wooded freight cars on the rails then too.
e-paw, the article doesn't give boxcar percentages for any years except 1979.
The incentive per diem info is very interesting.
I know that through the 70's, it was quite common place for lumber dealers to receive lumber in 40ft box cars. In 1969, when I first worked for the F&C (FCIN) and Lowe's lumber was stocking their new facility (located on the L&N no less) we handled all their lumber for them. Came off the Southern in Georgetown, KY and they would have as many as 10 cars in the Frankfort yard at one time. Each car was hand unloaded - piece by piece on to waiting trucks and then hauled the 5 miles or so to their facility.
We had 3 other lumber companies in town and they all received lumber in 40ft box cars. But during the late 70's they became fewer and fewer, with most lumber moving in 50ft single, double and combination door cars. When the L&N constructed Lowe's private track in early 1970, pretty much all their lumber came in on 60ft bulkhead flats or 50ft box cars.
Through the 70's, the distilleries would occasionally receive grain in 40ft box cars too, but the majority of their grain was already received in 100ton capacity L&N Big Blue covered hoppers. You'd also see 80 and 100 ton capacity covered hoppers from other roads that contained rye and malt (SOO/CNW/CBQ/RI to name a few). Some of the 40ft cars loaded with grain that I recall were RI, CNW, FDDM, NP, CBQ and GN. I recall the GN 40ft box had a plug door, but with small doors near the top of the door where the grain was loaded - eliminating the need for grain doors in the car. I think that Athearn made or does make models of these 40ft grain box cars. Oh yes, when they did receive grain in box cars, they used a vacuum hose to unload them.
Speaking of the IPD cars, the LNAC had a large number of 40ft box cars in their fleet. In fact all the cars they started with were 40ft box cars (100 as I recall). The 1987 ORER shows they still had 85 of them (9%) in service out of a total of 920 cars - the rest were 50ft XM, 52ft RBL's with Evans Dual Air Packs and 52ft All-Door cars. I recently acquired a model of one of their 40ft box cars that I'll be operating on my ISL, as I remember seeing all their assorted cars in service and on the LNAC. Funny thing, few of their cars were actually ever returned empty to them at Corydon, although they liked to keep a few on hand for shipping outbound furniture.
The article has a table of all the shortlines who got involved in the IPD craze. In 1979, the LNAC had 438 40-footers, and 159 50-footers. The table leads me to believe that the new 50 footers they were acquiring was done through the United States Railway Leasing Company out of Des Plaines, Ill.
The reason the government instituted the IPD rules was to replenish the nation's dwindling fleet of general purpose boxcars. Essentially, a shortline could buy new cars on credit, send them out into the world, and then make the payments from the proceeds received from the Class 1s. It was a slick way for a shortline to build up their fleets, simialr to purchasing a house on credit, then renting it out and using the rent money to pay the mortgage.
I had read long ago but can not recall the source, that many older receiving docks had their doors spaced for 40' boxcars, and therefore those companies insisted that 40' cars be delivered. As I recall, the point of the article was the demand for the 40'ers caused the railroads to keep them around longer than they would have otherwise, and that they needed to have them available for certain customers.
Gary
Good point JGL. It would be very expensive to relocate loading doors to fit 50 footers. There was a radiator plant on the Jersey city/ Bayonne border that had a curved loading dock. It's doors were all spaced to fit 40 foot box cars. The building still stands ,but is owned by another co. , The loading dock was removed some years ago. Another place that comes to mind is the CNJ Bronx terminal. The tight radius of the round freight house could not except anything over 40 foot and the doors were spaced to match that.
I have heard many stories that during the 60's as the number of 40' cars started to dwindle the general attitude was if you can't hold and load a larger car, to bad. This time also coincided with the advent of the interstate system so many of the smaller shippers found it cheaper to ship by truck instead of sitting on enough product to load a 50' boxcar or expand their facilities. I remember in my home town many places that still have the dock and sometimes still have rail that could hold one 40' boxcar. Railroads were not to sorry to loose the one car customers as they were time consuming and costly. This began the time of cutting switch jobs on Class I's, which continues today, and has forced customers to either consolidate their traffic to one facility or hand it to shortlines who are willing to do the work.
Gary S Wrote:Can anyone give me a brief history of the demise of the 40 foot boxcar? I know there was a point in time when they were the predominant length of car used, then the 50 footers started edging them out. Perhaps give me a rough percentage of 40 fotter versus 50 footer for each decade? Just trying to get a feel for the mix I need to use on my layout.
Age is what help the fall of the 40' boxcar since most had passed 30 years of service and the need to remove the roof walk and lower the ladders per the new Federal rules and compliance date so,railroads went with new 50' ,50'6" and 60 footers instead of a massive rebuild program..Then the truck trailers was getting longer as well.
So age and a Federal mandate killed the 40' boxcar.