NEB&W Presents Soph Marty's Photo Album - Freight Cars - N

Last Update: 2008-05-12

Soph Marty's Photo Album Table of Contents
Freight Car Guide Table of Contents
Rolling Stock Table of Contents
Many of the photos in the Clark Propst Photo Album were taken by Soph Marty. (See Clark Propst's Photo Album for these.) Soph has gotten a scanner and now is sending them on directly. He is starting with "A" and working his way through the alphabet.
In addition to thanking Soph for sharing them with the rest of us, Richard Hendrickson has been nice enough to jot down some background information, to put these cars in context.

  1. Soph says: "O.K., O.K. now! I have heard you all loud and clear. My ears (head?) is still ringing. Instead of Atlanta & St. Andrews Bay, we will go to N.P. out of order. Hey, I'm a "J" personality...everything has to be kept in order...
    "Northern Pacific box car no. 40512 was being switched on the Rock Island, team tracks in Mason City, IA on April 1, 1970. What is the reason for the sheet metal to the right of the door? Please do not ask for the caboose. We are not doing cabooses." To which Soph got the following responses.
    Ted Culotta writes: "My guess would be that it was a quick offline fix for a damaged tongue-in-groove board. No sense investing a lot of money in something that was probably due to be scrapped or placed in MOW service at any moment."
    Bob Drenth says: "Great photo, My expectation of the sheet metal, note the car, has steel roof, ends,and sides are wood-vertical tongue and grove sheeting. I think one board was broken or rotted, the tin is wide enough to seal up the problem, again car is at end of its service life> By 1970, the six foot door, and covered hoppers doomed 40 foot box cars to obsolescence. Patch 'em up for one more trip?
    "Could not read built date, but expect, car comes from time span of between 1937-'53, which makes it between 33 and 17 years old. Both NP and GN served the lumber industry of the Northwest, and both WWII, and Korean War created steel shortages - there were other reasons, but these two are some of the prime causes that give us wood sheathed cars at this late dates. I would sure like to model one in 1-1/2 inch some time."
    (Soph said he went back and "examined the slide with a 20x triplet (which I use to get the numbers off of locomotives and cars when I label slides... you don't think I remember them from when I shoot the photo, do you?), and the Built Date is '8-37'. And in addition to an HO layout in his basement, Bob has a 1-1/2 inch scale back yard layout, with both live steam and diesel. And, on top of all this, he works for the I&M RailLink RR.")
    Ted Culotta said, yes these cars were built in 1937 by Pacific Car & Foundry - the wood was used to appease online lumber interests.
    Finally, Richard Hendrickson mails: "Probably a temporary patch over damaged T&G wood sheathing in order to keep the car weathertight until it was returned to the NP for repairs. I have other photos that show similar expedients - especially in later years (by 1970, many railroad shops weren't equipped to repair wood sheathing, as so few wood sheathed cars were still in service). When built in 1939, these 45000 series wood sheathed box cars were numbered in the 9480-9999 series and were of AAR standard design in all respects (4/5 Dreadnaught ends, rectangular panel roof, AAR underframe, etc.), except for their wood side sheathing. They were the last wood sheathed box cars built for the NP, except for the "war emergency" single-sheathed cars of WWII; in 1940-'41, the NP ordered a large number of box cars which were identical to the 1939 cars but had steel side sheathing."

  2. SD Marty photo of NP log car no. 100.

  3. SD Marty photo of NP 50 foot box car no. 1286. found on a CB&Q train in Minneapolis, MN on May 27, 1970. According to the NP Color Guide, the NP 1100-1289 "Damage Free" series was converted in 1954-'55 from the 31000 series originally built in 1950, a mere five years earlier.

  4. SD Marty photo of an NP 50 foot double-door box car, no. 7185, photographed on a CNW through Mason City, IA on May 2, 1970. Bob Drenth said: "I recall the BN merger as around 1969 or '70. "For almost 80 years, GN-NP-CB&Q tried to merge, but ICC would not allow it.
    "When the merger appeared to be permissible, both NP and CB&Q started using same color paint. I am not aware of GN doing so, but then there is a lot about GN I haven't discovered - yet. Yes, GN also had green cars, but they were Glacier Green, and fell between the red, and Big Sky Blue campaigns - BN green was definitely afterwards.
    "NP 7185 would most likely be used in the lumber traffic, plywood or blandix common loads. Just think, somewhere, there is plywood in a model railroad table that traveled in a car just like this one.
    "Again, the last two NP cars have been through a shop, running boards are gone and ladders cut down."
    Tim O'Connor said: "The NP applied this light green paint to some equipment long before the merger - possibly about the same time GN switched to Big Sky Blue. Just before the merger, NP and CB&Q applied a darker green to some equipment (I have photos of an NP covered hopper and CB&Q boxcar) which later became the standard color for Burlington Northern. As far as I know, no GN equipment received experimental 'BN' paint."

  5. SD Marty photo of NP stock car no. 83136, on a BN train, pulled by 214, in St. Paul, MN on September 18, 1974. (This is the type of car as represented by the Central Valley kit.) Soph said: "In my convoluted way of thinking, stock cars are a subset of box cars, and photos are filed with them."

  6. SD Marty photo of NP stock car no. 84165, a stock car rebuilt from a box car. My guess is that they didn't bother with the traditional diagonals as the original car's fishbelly center sill would be more than sufficiant for a light loads carried by a stock car. According to the NP Color Guide, the NP rebuilt box cars in 1958 into stock car series 84000-84188. The roofs were painted aluminum to cut down on the heat absorption. The three panel square corner Dreadnaught would suggest the original box cars were built c. 1930.

  7. SD Marty photo of a similar NP stock car, no. 88106.

  8. Soph says this is a photo of NP flat no. 60203. However, Mike Davison writes: "The consensus is that this cannot be NP 60203 as the 60200-60249 span range has not had a flat car in it at least since 1885. It may be NP 60253, but that also seems highly unlikely as the shape is wrong and NP TOFC equipment was numbered 65xxx. "Some have guessed that this may be a GN car. The GN series 60200-60224; 60225-60234; 60235-60289 are evidently plausible."
    Davison asks if annyone can shed any light on this there are a group of 10 or so NP fans that are interested.

  9. SD Marty photo of NP 66906 with a load of telephone poles.