NEB&W Introduction to Box Cars

Last Update: 2007-12-30

Box Cars Table of Contents
Freight Car Guide Table of Contents
Rolling Stock Table of Contents

Introduction

The two most notable things about circa 1950 freight trains both concerned box cars. The variation in the box car heights gave a ragged skyline to the train, and there was a quite a mix of wood and single-sheathed cars. Neither was true to the same degree on trains just five years later.

Box cars were the largest class of freight cars, accounting for 41% of the nation’s total freight car fleet in 1950. Together with hoppers (32%) and gondolas (17%), they made up 90% of the total rolling stock. In that era, about 37% of all box cars were still of "less-than-all-steel construction."

Often, a particular road would have their traffic skewed toward one commodity, so that their box cars were designed around that type of cargo. The density of the loads shipped in box cars varied greatly. Often the load would bulk out before it would exceed the weight limits, as the typical box car load was around 25 tons, while most cars had a capacity of 50 tons. New innovations in freight car design were often applied first to hoppers or gons, with box cars bringing up the rear a couple of years later. I think that might have been a result of the typical light box car loadings. Since gons and hoppers were generally loaded to their weight capacity, any improvements in design were more important than for box cars. Refrigerator and stock cars had even lighter average loadings, so design advances reached them last. Much of the explanation for box cars applies to these other house cars.

Grain was a dense commodity (relatively). (That is why 70-ton covered hoppers, designed for grain or other bulk commodities of similar density, were so short.) When shipped in box cars, grain could not be loaded to the top or else the weight limit would be exceeded, an exception to the typical light loadings. Lines were drawn on the inside of box cars that showed how high to fill the car with each type of grain. Grain was a major lading for box cars.

A box car was the jack of all trades. Everything was shipped in box cars unless special requirements forced the use of different cars. Yes, that goes against common sense. One would think that flat cars, being the simplest, would have been the first choice. However, flat cars were very specialized, and therefore rare (less than 4%), so that just on pure chance there would be 10 times the chance of having a n available empty box car as having a flat.

Construction Type

Every freight car acted as a bridge to support the load between the trucks, its own weight plus that of the cargo. The sides of cars normally were the main source of strength. (A flat car, without sides, was the most inefficient use of steel.) Cars in the last century were all-wood, with a wood truss built into each car side. Box cars were sheathed on the outside to protect the structural wood from the elements, the same reason a covered bridge was covered.

Truss rods in the underframe provided some strength, as they formed the lower tension members of a truss with the wooden floor members forming the compression members. However, the main purpose of truss-rods was to allow tightening of the body. The joints worked themselves loose from the undulations of moving, a phenomenon called "weaving." Steel was first used in an underframe in 1874, but it took decades before it became the norm. Steel center sills were often retrofitted to truss-rod cars because the ICC outlawed wood underframes during the 1930's. The steel center sill, all but hidden under normal viewing conditions, transferred the drawbar forces from coupler to coupler, in which case the Equipment Register would list the car as "SUF", i.e., equipped with a steel underframe. Such composite underframes were not outlawed for cars in interchange until 1952. Truss-rod cars with a steel center sill were being built new into the '20's.

The next advance was the use of a heavier underframe to support the load and not depend on the wood side trusses. The depth of the underframe had to be reduced at the truck bolsters to clear the axles. This gave a fishbelly profile to the car. The forerunner of the fishbelly center sill, using what was described as a "truss-type center and side sills made of round pipes," appeared about 1882.

In 1894, the Carnegie Steel Co. built six all-steel flat cars using fishbelly side sills. The Pennsy's XL box cars of the early 1900's and the Harriman box cars used by the Union Pacific and Southern Pacific had steel side sills. These types of box cars, with wood bodies and steel underframes, were essentially a crate on a flat car. Like flat cars, this was not an efficient use of steel.

The all-steel car was next. Car builders did not understand the inherent strength of a sheet of steel across its plane, so the first cars had either a redundant fishbelly underframe, fishbelly side sills, or diagonals on the sides to form trusses. The first steel box cars did not appear until some early attempts in 1906, a decade after all-steel hoppers were built in quantity. The first mass-produced steel box cars were the PRR's X25 design of 1914.

Richard Hendrickson has pointed out that the X25 was basically an all-steel version of the PRR's single-sheathed X23, sharing the same fishbelly center sill (not needed in either case), underframe and roof. He said that the early NYC steel box cars were likewise based on wood cars, and the first true steel box car designed from the ground up was the USRA car. The Central was building cars to the USRA design a couple of years before the X29. The X29 was only marginally based on the X25 (although at first glance, the two look similar).

Surprisingly, composite cars, part steel, part wood, were conceived AFTER all-steel cars. C.A. Seley, master mechanic on the N&W, first proposed the use of steel trusses on hoppers and gons in 1900 (several years after all-steel hoppers and gons were in full production), and box cars followed later. A steel truss could be exposed, so generally these cars had only a single layer of wood to enclose the cargo. The single sheathing went on the inside of the trusses, to provide a smooth lining for the cargo.

In the May 1902 American Engineer and Railroad Journal, there was an article about the 100 steel truss 36 foot box cars being built for the Norfolk & Western, two years after steel framed gons (April 1900, AE&RJ) and a year after steel-framed hoppers (February 1901, same magazine). Seley's designs used channels for the diagonals. Several years later, Seley was working for the Rock Island, and in the June 1906 AE&RJ, there were plans of 40 foot box cars which had become standard for the Rock Island, while a similar design was described as standard on the Frisco. Both the N&W and Rock Island used the Howe truss pattern. A Howe truss is the norm for wood bridges, since it puts the diagonals in compression, as wood is much weaker in tension. However, steel is stronger in tension, so the use of a Howe truss was a throwback to wood car design. In a Howe truss, the diagonals point to the top of the door. Both of the Seley box cars were double-sheathed. The only clue that anything was out of the ordinary with these cars was that there would have been no fishbelly underframe.

In the February 21, 1908 Railroad Gazette, there was an article that had a long discussion of the use of steel in cars. According to the article, in 1896 a committee of the Master Car Builders' Association recommended that the entire load of the car be carried by the underframe, with the top section being used merely as a housing. The analogy used in the article (but not perhaps by the committee) was that "every structure has a foundation, every machine has a bedplate, every animal, bird, fish and most of higher works of nature have a backbone or spine on or around which the structure is framed."

It was mentioned in the 1902 N&W article that while the steel side trusses were intended to aid in carrying the load, bridge designers would find it strange to have the center panel minus diagonals for the door opening. It is significant that Seley understood from the beginning that his design was using the sides to carry the load, a point apparently overlooked by many later car designers. Many single-sheathed box cars built into the 1920's included a redundant fishbelly center sill.

With any design that used the sides for strength, the door opening always was a weak spot. Double doors and/or end doors made for a weaker car, and generally avoided unless the intended loadings, such as autos, required them. For double-door cars, a fishbelly center sill might not have been so unneeded. However, on all-steel double-door box cars, the wider opening was generally dealt with by adding a reinforcement at that point along the side sill.

The first mass produced single-sheathed box cars were what we call the Fowler car. Mr. Fowler only invented a minor device to tighten the sheathing, but nonetheless a whole type of car design was named after him. The first Fowler cars were built for the two Canadian roads (CP and CN) starting in 1909.

Modelers also speak of a "sawtooth" Fowler (the truss members extended below the car side in a sawtooth pattern and were tied to the underframe components). The sawtooth Fowler was only made in a longer 40 foot car. The un-sawtooth Fowler design was also lengthened to a 40 foot box car.

All of the steel-frame box cars up until this point had 7 panels - if you count the door. In 1915, the Bettendorf Company demonstrated a new design, using an additional pair of diagonals, but still a Howe truss. This design was adopted by the USRA as their single-sheathed design in 1918, and many cars in the '20's copied the basic design. I think we should use the term "Bettendorf" for the USRA SS car and its clones.

After WWI, the railroad industry was trying to develop standard car designs that the railroads would adopt voluntarily. (The USRA cars had been forced on the roads by the government.) The American Railroad Association - ARA - developed a series of designs, all based on an inside height of 8 ft. 7 ins. For the single-sheathed and double-sheathed cars, they proposed a Pratt truss, appropriate for steel, with the same number of trusses as the Fowler. The railroads agreed on the design, but most then went back to the Howe configuration on the cars they built.

Single-sheathed cars continued to be the favorite design for the large and/or long box cars designed to carry automobiles, furniture and other relatively light bulky loads, even as the all-steel car was gaining acceptance as the standard for general merchandise cars. This is analogous to the use of a truss for a large bridge and a girder for a smaller bridge.

The Pennsy modified their X25, mainly by eliminating the heavy underframe, to become their X29. (There were other structural changes that visually weren't so apparent.) After the war, the ARA tried to get a modified version passed as a standard, but the roads weren’t ready to accept a steel car. The design remained "proposed," even as it was being followed by many in the industrial Northeast. Only the PRR built a true X29, but it is useful to use the designation, in quotes or as "X29-type", for the copies by other roads.

In 1932, several important design modifications were made to the "X29" design. The attachment along the bottom of the side was changed to remove the contact of the thin side sheets with any moisture retained in the wood flooring, as the "X29's" rusted out here. The underframe components were attached to the side sill with gussets, different (visually) from the flat bottom edge of the "X29." The "X29" sides had double rivet rows along the side seams, which connected to internal pairs of angles. The angles in turn held a wood stud to which the wood lining was attached. On the 1932 design, this was replaced with single rivet rows, connected to individual Z-bars to hold the wood studs.

The 1932 design was so successful that subsequent revisions in 1937 and 1942 really only increased the height - the structural design basically stayed the same.

Length

In 1900, the 36 foot box car was just overtaking the 34 foot car for general merchandise. (Special box cars for furniture and automobiles have often been built longer than the standard car of the day, as "hi-cubes" - high cubic capacities - of their day.) In 1901, the American Railway Association adopted 36 feet as the standard. It is claimed that the Pennsy was the first to go to a 40 foot length for a standard, not specialized, car in 1912, with their X23. In the June 14, 1915 issue of Railway Age Gazette, there was a short discussion of the advantages of going to a 40 foot standard. (The argument was that many materials such as lumber were commonly shipped in 18 foot lengths, but since these materials often were cut a few inches longer, they couldn't fit two lengths in a 36 foot car. At least one lumber company refused to load in 36 feet cars.)

Even though 36 foot box cars were built into the mid-1920's, especially for grain roads, the 1919 USRA designs and the 1923 ARA designs were for 40 foot cars, which says the consensus had quickly shifted to 40 feet.

In 1949, 5.9% of all box cars were 36 foot CP and CN Fowler cars, and 2.4 % were 36 foot non-Fowler cars, for a total of 8.3% box cars less than 40 feet long. Forty-foot box cars accounted for 84.5% of the fleet and 7.3% were 50 foot cars. Note that of the 36 foot cars, over 2/3 were CN and CP Fowler cars, and that there were more 36 foot cars in service than 50 foot cars, and almost as many Fowler cars as the total of all 50 foot boxcars. By 1954, there was less than half the number of 36 foot box cars left (4.1%), of which 0.7% were non-Fowler 36 foot cars. The non-Fowler 36 foot box car fleet had shrunk by over 2/3 during those five years. In 1954, 50 foot cars made up 8.8% of the total box car fleet, still a long way to go to becoming the standard. Yet the shift to the 50 foot car was clearly taking place, as can be seen by all the space devoted to photos of 50 foot box cars in the 1953 Car Cyc. It wasn’t "official" (at least in my mind) until Pullman's 50 foot version of their PS-1 began to sell in great numbers c. 1955.

Inside Height

The standard inside height for reefers in 1900 was 8 feet while for box cars it was 7 feet. Within a few years, it was 8 feet for box cars too, and 8 ft. IH cars would be about the lowest you might see in 1950. The USRA designs, forced on the railroads by the government, were 9 feet high inside. The standard inside height of the 1920's ARA designs was 8 ft. 7 ins., a drop of five inches from USRA cars. (This 8 ft. 7 in. height was the result of an industry-wide vote, and was a gain of one inch more than the minimum set in 1920. It was calculated at the time that each inch added would increase the weight of the car by 70 pounds.) The 1932 standard was raised to 9 ft. 4 ins., raised again in 1937 (10 feet) and then again in 1942 (10 ft. 6 ins.) I don't believe it has been raised since.

Outside Height

When I first was learning about box cars, I was surprised to see that instead of randomly growing taller, the inside heights were quantized, with so many at or within an inch of the dimensions listed above. However, this obscured an important part of the picture. It wasn't until Bob Schleicher mentioned to me a problem of the Accurail single-sheathed cars that something dawned.

The Accurail car was based on a 1923 Canadian National box car, but there were other prototypes that seem nearly identical until you look up the inside height in the Register. There was variation as much as a foot lower. However, the surprise is that the overall height of the car does not always vary the same way. One car may have a smaller inside height than another, but may actually have sat taller.

A few inches of this was due to the variation in the roof thickness. The major difference was that there was no standard height of the floor. A car that might be taller inside could be the same height outside because the floor sat lower. In 1901, the American Railway Association adopted two standards for box cars. One was for cars that sat on "high trucks" and the floor was four feet above the rail. The other for cars that sat on "low trucks" had the floor at 3 ft. 6 ins. above the rail. One can imagine that many cars had floors at heights outside these dimensions, either higher or lower.

This is important in terms of box car development. A typical box car, circa 1910, such as a Rutland's 36 foot box car, was 13 feet 5 inches to the top of the running boards, and actually was 8 feet 4 inches high inside. The standard USRA box car, such as a Pennsy X26 single-sheathed car, had an interior height of 9 feet, but was only 13 feet 7 inches to the running boards. In other words, the USRA car was 8 inches taller inside but only two inches taller outside.

A representative of the ARA designs of 1923 would be the PRR X29, which had an interior height of 8 feet 7 inches, but was only 13 feet 3 inches tall, one inch lower than the pre-WWI standard cars. Thus if you look at the outside height, the growth was essentially stagnant to the end of the 1920's.

It was the Pennsy who forced the issue of taller cars by pushing the round-roof X31 cars on the industry. The X31a, for example, was a radical 14 feet 6 inches to the top of the running boards, a jump of a foot. The 1932 AAR design was only 13 feet 10 inches to the running boards, while the 1937 design was the same as the X31. The 1942 standard of 10 feet 6 inches inside translated into just over 15 feet outside. Thus while the inside dimension grew 2-1/2 feet, the top of the car rose by just a little over 1-1/2 feet.

By the way, today you hear about Plate C or Plate F clearances. In 1949, there was only one "plate" which set the top of the car to 15 feet 1 inch, the absolute same as the 1942 AAR standard design. In the hobby, the NMRA gauge puts clearance at 22 scale feet. On the prototype, that would be generous, enough for either the pantograph to be extended on an electric loco, or the height that would clear a man standing on a box car. Clearances under 22 scale feet required a tell-tale. On the Rensselaer layout, since we have no need to run double-stacks, hi-cubes, or other modern equipment, we have set the minimum for bridges or other overhead clearances at 17 feet.

Ends

The ends of a house car (box, a uto, reefer, or stock car) are a major spotting feature. Rough coupling practices all too often sent the cargo bursting through the ends. The railroads were more concerned with the fate of their cars than the shipper’s cargo. Rather than trying to better restrain the loads, they sought stronger ends.

Steel brace reinforcements were often used at first. The first practical all-steel end was the Murphy end, introduced in 1912 on a New York Central box car. They found that not only was an all-steel end stronger than any type of heavy wood reinforced end, but also lighter. The end they used (perhaps invented) consisted of a series of narrow horizontal ridges, which sometimes was referred to as a Murphy end. The first version (c. 1912-1926) had the ribs extending into the car, an "innie." Later (c. 1915-1930) the preferred version was the protruding form, an "outie."

The Pennsylvania introduced the "Pennsy flat end" in 1914, with three vertical internal braces for stiffness. This end was the most common on the "X29" steel cars of the 1920's, and was the standard end proposed for the 1923 single-sheathed car design. It wound up on such cars as the B&M cars, both composite and all-steel.

The early sheet metal presses were not big enough to press large enough panels, so more than two were needed for the taller cars. True USRA cars are identified in part by their three-piece 5/5/5 Murphy ends. The first Dreadnaught ends for the 10 foot IH auto cars were also three-panel.

The first Dreadnaught ends were seen in 1925. The Dreadnaught had large ribs that tapered down at the corners. The distinguishing touch was the pair of "darts" between the ribs to take up excess material. The first version had a squashed look to it as the face of the ribs were in the plane as the corners, while the "flat" areas were actually depressed. (This is sometimes called the reverse Dreadnaught end.) Dreadnaught and Improved Dreadnaught were brand names, so they should be capitalized and there are no permissible spelling variations.

Hutchins ends were rare. They had large flat horizontal panels, either raised or depressed. The Vulcan Vertical (nicknamed "Jailbox ends") was a vertical form of the Murphy, and while very distinctive, was extremely uncommon.

In 1939, Standard Railway introduced the "W" corner post to the Dreadnaught end. Despite its name, this version was identified by the rounded corners. The end wrapped around to attach to the side, covering the corner post. This was called the improved Dreadnaught end (little "i") by the company.

The Improved Dreadnaught end (Big "I") was introduced in 1944. The darts were extended to form secondary ribs between the major ribs. This alternating of big and little ribs was the distinguishing feature.

The hobby has been using the terms "interim" to refer to some of the ends, such as calling the Improved Dreadnaught an interim Dreadnaught. Since "Improved" was part of the official brand name, these other terms are misleading and not needed.

There have been a number of other versions:

Van Dorn, a circular bull's-eye end was introduced around 1909 and saw little use. Whenever it was used, it was eye-catching. The Deco end we call a waffle-iron. It, too, was spectacular, but used on perhaps just some C&O box cars around WWII.

The Buckeye was introduced around 1930, and used occasionally. The Erie used them at times. (I don't know of any road other than the Erie that used them.)

The "dartnaught" had no industry name that I've ever seen. We hobbyists call it that because it looked like a Dreadnaught were they left off the "darts." It was used after WWII, for about a decade. The shape of the ribs was actually closer to the "rolling pin" version of the Improved Dreadnaught.

The PS-1 end was used on the PS-1 box car, as part of the package deal. Occasionally it or something similar was found on other cars, particularly some fixed-end gons.

The Canadian car builder's had their own end versions, including a type we call "basketweave." These were used after WWII.

The AAR end had a flat spot on the end of each rib. It was used on some box cars and gons after WWII. It is found on the MDC gon.

The Despatch end was another unnamed end, so called by hobbyists because it appeared on cars built by Merchants Despatch in the mid-'50's. It was somewhat similar to the PS-1. It's only known use was on some NYC and MDT cars.

Roofs

Wood-truss house cars, with or without a steel center sill, were so flexible that the cars twisted or "weaved" as they rolled over irregular trackage. Metal roofs for these cars had to be flexible, and consisted of sheets with interlocked edges, so that the panels could shift in relation to each other. These were known as flexible roofs. A rigid roof would likely pop off at some point.

There were many brand names of flexible roofs. Throughout this book, I refer to these as Murphy XLA roofs, one brand name. The steel panels rested on top of a wood inner roof, and the seams were covered with battens wrapped in metal. All the various pieces were not rigidly attached to each other. The metal on the battens and the roof panels were folded so they interlocked, but could slide in relation to each other as the car body flexed.

Steel and steel-truss cars were rigid, so the roof panels could be riveted together. The roof ribs could be beneath the seams as on the "X29" design, giving a flat roof. Alternatively the ribs could go on top, covering the seams. This second version didn’t waste valuable interior space and was eventually the preferred type. A Hutchins (Dry Lading) roof (c. 1920's) had a tiny crease in the middle of each of these panels. The Viking roof (c. 1940) had a series of creases, like corrugated metal. There were many other forms of roofs. Different manufacturers would offer basically the same design under their own brand names, while some names like Murphy and Hutchins were used on many different types of designs.

Radial roofs were common in the 1920's. I can speculate that on one hand, a radial roof would eliminate a seam down the middle of the roof, but such a seam would provide some additional rigidity. I'm not aware one way or another if either factor was a concern.

Starting about 1932, Standard Railway added a large rectangular raised panel in the middle of each sheet. They revised this after WWII by adding a diagonal crease in each panel, forming a pattern that is the opposite of how Vermont and New Hampshire look on a map. (Sometimes this is done backwards by some kit manufacturers.) If there wasn't room, the raised panels would be left off the first and last sections. On reefers, the ice hatches normally forced the first and last sections to be wider, so the next sections got squeezed and were missing the raised panels.

I believe that the rectangular panel roof was only made in a saddle-type, not radial, form. This design's popularity, and that of its improved Diagonal Panel type, spelled the doom for radial roofs.

Doors

The American Railway Association (not the Master Car Builders Association) adopted a 6 foot wide door in October 23, 1901, but the five foot door was common up until about 1910. In the April 11, 1902 Railroad Gazette, there was an article arguing against the 6 foot door, as the wider opening created problems for car loads of grain or coal. (Apparently it was common to carry coal in box cars, at least at the turn-of-the-century.) Carrying these commodities in bulk created a lot of bulging pressure, and the increase in door width only made the problem worse.

Railroads, such as the ones in the plains that carrying lots of grain, tended to favor the five foot wide door, while ones that carried lighter, bulky merchandise, went immediately to the 6 foot wide door. For the rest of the steam-era, the standard door opening remained 6 foot wide.

Just as diesels were replacing steam, fork-trucks were replacing hand trucks. Fork-trucks required larger openings, (which were always more expensive, especially since this weakened the car side). The 8 foot door was on its way to becoming the standard by 1953. Eight feet did not remain the standard for long, by the end of the '50's, the 10 foot wide door became the defactor standard.

The Youngstown door, introduced circa 1925, was by far the most common door well into the diesel age. It consisted of narrow horizontal creases, like the Murphy end. Richard Hendrickson has pointed out the big visual change in Youngstown doors around 1945-'46. The older door design was at first changed to one that had a somewhat heavier perimeter frame. The seam panels changed from narrow to wide and recessed to protruding. In about a year, the seams changed back to narrow, but still remained protruding.

By changing the amount of the unstamped seam panel of the door sections, minor changes in heights could be achieved using the same size stampings. I suspect that the reason the seams were at first wide and then changed back to narrow, was that they had to stretch to reach the newer 10 ft. 6 in. taller cars until the stampings were revised. For the really nitpicky, there are variations in the number of corrugations in each panel.

Terry Metcalfe said that sometimes the newer Youngstown doors were referred to as "lightweight Youngstown" but weren't really any lighter than the older doors. He used the term "Improved Youngstown" since that was a term used by the company itself in its advertising. He also said that other improvements were to put the roller mechanisms at the bottom of the doors in a housing so only the operating lever was exposed, and that there was a change from two levers to a single centered one.

The door of the Chicago Railway Equipment Corp. (Creco) had three large panels. It (or a door that looked like it) was used from 1912 to 1940. The Superior door, of five or 7 panels, was sometimes used from 1940 on. According to Ed Hawkins, the first 6-panel Superior doors were used as early as 1954 on some PS-1's.

Running Boards

According to the 1911 standards, roof walks (technically "running boards") had to be at least 18 inches wide. Using three 1x6 boards, with a one inch space between boards, gave a 20 inch wide running board. For years, I had been using basswood to model these, carefully spacing the boards apart. Ever since Tichy introduced their plastic running boards, I plan never to scratchbuild a 40 foot running board again. The Tichy one is so delicate that its use will improve just about any kit.

On cars with exposed wood roofs, there normally were no cross-walks. Typically the cross-walks were composed of about 6 boards running across the shorter dimension. The Tichy casting has the atypical length-wise boards.

Wood had been the standard for running boards, but the 1911 Safety Act legalized wood as the only acceptable material. In the 1922 Cyc., there was a photo of a Morton steel brake platform. In the January 1930 issue of Railway Mechanical Engineer, it was reported that the ICC had been petitioned by the train-service brotherhoods that the rule be modified to accept metal running boards. In 1932 the ARA accepted metal running boards on a case by case basis. The earliest ads for rectangular hole running boards are in the 1940 Car Cyc. According to Terry Metcalfe, the Blaw-Knox steel running boards were used on the Union Pacific on new box cars in 1939, perhaps the first use of Blaw-Knox. Also, he said the AAR recommended "other than wood" running boards after 1944.

As indicated above, the Morton version goes back to the 1920's. The Morton running board was made of sheet metal with holes punched in it. I would think this would make the Morton the heaviest and the least efficient use of steel.

The Blaw-Knox ad, from the 1946 Cyc., showed strips of steel set on edge, with bars used to hold the strips apart. I can't determine if the bars were round or twisted square ones.

The Apex running board was shown in the 1946 Cyc. It consisted of 1 x 1/8 inch wide strips of steel, set on edge, with 1/2 inch strips used as cross members and set in slots in the lengthwise strips. Like the Blaw-Knox version, the top edges had a wavy or serrated pattern to increase the grip. The holes created were rectangular, like the Blaw-Knox ones.

The Overland running boards represent both the Blaw-Knox and the Apex Tri-Lok versions. Which Overland running boards fit the C&BT and IMWX box cars? Overland 055-2156 is made for the McKean PS-1 and 055-2157, for the Front Range 40 foot car. Both are of the rectangular hole type and of identical length. The 2157 has wider end walks, 28 inches versus 24 inches for the 2156. The minimum AAR standard was two foot wide, but from what we can determine, the wider width was used on the PS-1. Ads from the 1940's Cycs. show the regular running boards as two foot wide, but in a 1961 Blaw-Knox ad, that dimension was given as "varies." The difference between the two running boards is so subtle that you could use either. Both versions fit on the C&BT, IMWX and probably any 40 foot house car. Each comes with corner grabs made for the width of the end walk.

Tackboards

Art Hamilton has pointed out that at some point after 1954, the AAR mandated that tackboards be moved down from high on box car doors and ends to where they could be read from the ground. This seems to have happened in early 1956.