Modeling Auto-Boxcars (Part 1) - Walthers 50ft Double-Door Single-Sheath Auto-Boxcars

Time for a little study on the Walthers 50ft Double-Door Single-Sheath Auto-Boxcars.  These would have been built in the 1920s for the expanding automobile transportation industry.  By the end of the 1930s and 1940s, new all-steel double-door cars were being built after the depression.  The older single-sheath cars were almost obsolete and found their way into general XM service.  Some cars were built with 1-1/2 door openings, not full double-door openings.  

My research for this is pulled from Westerfield's 1950 ORER CD roster for North American interchange railroads.  Various basic specs for car dimensions are listed, including the size of the door openings, staggered doors or centered doors, cars in service, etc.  So it seems some models confuse the two in their numbering.  This means that subtle renumbering of various models may be needed for 1940-1950s era modeling.

Santa Fe (ATSF)

ATSF 66579, early lettering scheme on this Walthers model. - 2022 photo

The Santa Fe's 66000-series is shown in 1950 ORER as 40'6" cars with 12ft doors, which means that the Walthers model is a fobbie for this car in later era.  I don't see any signs of ATSF 50ft 6in wood-side cars left in service at this date.  Many were completely rebuilt into weird hybrid cars, like Anthony Thompson shows on his blog of a Richard Hendrickson kitbashed model, Part 5, Part 6.  These posts show that the majority of early (as-built) Santa Fe 50ft auto-boxcars were using completely different designs of the car sides, etc.  The periods on the reporting marks also date this model to well before 1943, suggesting the 1920s is more likely for the lettering plan used.  So I don't think the Walthers model is correct at all for the Santa Fe car.  Looks like I get to sell this one off or repaint it as something more useful in the future.

Great Northern

GN 41741 - Walthers 50ft SS Auto Boxcar, LMRC 2011 Roster

GN 41752 - Walthers 50ft SS Auto Boxcar, LMRC 2011 Roster

Great Northern's entry in ORER 1950 does not show the 41900-series is empty by 1950.  The ORER does show 43500-43899 series show steel frame, 12ft staggered-doors.  The 43900-43999 are similar, but also show full end door.  The Walthers models come with end-doors as an option in the kit, so it would be possible to model either series if some minor decalling and renumbering was done.

So I may do some renumbering of the GN cars that I have to move them to the 43k series, which should be easy to change the 1 to a 3.  If I wanted to do an end-door car, I would probably have to decal the whole reporting mark on the A-end door piece.  The 43500-43899 and 43900-43999 show as XM (General service boxcars) in the AAR Mechanical classification column.

Milwaukee

MILW 271737 - Walthers 50ft SS Auto Boxcar, LMRC 2011 Roster

MILW 271500-271999 series are 50'6" single-sheath, 12ft staggered doors totalling 434 cars in 1950, Note MM.  Three cars in this series also had Note BB (roof hatches and side doors permanently closed for sawdust and shavings) and MM (safety concerns reducing capacity from 100,000 journals to 80,000 pounds.  Cars being stenciled accordingly).  The Note MM is very interesting, which will be fun to model by changing the tare weights max of the car to a 40-ton car!  Something to think about that a car with this much cubic capacity would be limited to 40 tons loading.

Northern Pacific

NP 4803 - Walthers 50ft SS Auto Boxcar, LMRC 2011 Roster

NP 4912 - Walthers 50ft SS Auto Boxcar, LMRC 2011 Roster

Northern Pacific 4700-4998 series show as 12ft staggered door single sheath cars, 296 cars in service in 1950.  The 5000-5999 series appear to be 1-1/2 door cars with 10'6" door openings with 953 cars.  Both series have Note P, which are belt-rails on the interior with dimensions showing reduced IW and specifying the space.

Southern Pacific

The Southern Pacific owned several series of cars with both double-doors and 1-1/2 door configuration, end-doors, no end-doors, etc.  Many of these cars can be really only accurately modeled with resin cars or brass models, but let's see how the Walthers car measures up.  For this car I will also be using information from Anthony Thompson's SP Freight Cars Vol.3 Automobile Cars for class and roster information.

SP 66804 with doors closed - 2022 photo

As with most of these cars, I've not worked on SP 66804 for probably 15 years at least.  I planned to have this car assigned to lumber service with the operating with the doors closed for the 'loaded' direction and then with layout's use of reversing loops to turn the entire consist would reveal the other side of the car with open doors for the 'empty' direction back towards Roseville and northern Calfornia.  Flooring and a light block/interior for the closed doors need to be installed inside the car.

Other side of SP 66804 with doors partly open - 2022 photo

The A-50-4 class, SP 63080-63329 series, were build with 1-1/2 doors in 1921.  Additionally 250 T&NO cars, transferred to Pacific Lines as 63600-63746 series 8-1-1936.  This class was 40ft.

The A-50-5 class, SP 68000-68499 series, were build with 9'11" opening with 1-1/2 wood doors & end doors

The A-50-6 class, SP 66800-67999 series & 68592-68654 series 8-1-1936 from T&NO.  The doors are 9'11" opening with 1-1/2 wood doors, no end doors.

The A-50-7 class, SP 68680-68879 & 68880-68979 series, were build with 12'6" openings with 1-1/2 wood doors.  Rebuilding of -7 and -8 cars with 1/2 door removed and resulting in single 6ft 5in door opening and under-door stiffener.

The A-50-8 class (200 T&NO cars), SP 68655-68679 group of 25 T&NO cars from class transferred to Pacific Lines 12-1935, were build 14'7" opening with 1-1/2 wood doors.  Rebuilding of -7 and -8 cars with 1/2 door removed and resulting in single 6ft 5in door opening and under-door stiffener.

The A-50-9 class, 68980-69229 series, were built with steel sheathing and exterior structure, 12ft openings, double 6ft steel doors, under door stiffeners (long tapper shape), and end doors.  Cars came with Dalman 2-level trucks.  Also it should be noted that the diagonal bracing is one brace less than Walthers and MDC/Roundhouse models have, only having three panels left and four to the right of the doors.  The A-50-10 and -11 use same structure.

Brass SP A-50-10 model (primed only) - Notice wider spaced vertical posts and more diagonal angle of the panel braces. - Kent Courtney collection

The A-50-10 class, 69230-69379 series, were built with steel sheathing and exterior structure, 12ft openings, double 6ft steel doors, under door stiffeners (short tapper shape), and end doors.  Cars came with Dalman 2-level trucks.  Also it should be noted that the diagonal bracing is one brace less than Walthers and MDC/Roundhouse models have, only having three panels left and four to the right of the doors.  The A-50-10 and -11 use same structure.

The A-50-11 class, SP 69380-69529 series, were built with steel sheathing and exterior structure, 12ft openings with double 6ft steel doors, under door stiffeners (short tapper shape), and no end doors.  Cars came with Dalman 2-level trucks.  Also it should be noted that the diagonal bracing is one brace less than Walthers and MDC/Roundhouse models have, only having three panels left and four to the right of the doors.  The A-50-10 and -11 use same structure.

This shows that basically none of the Walthers cars are correct for any of the SP single-sheath A-50-series boxcars.  The Walthers model is placed in A-50-6 class, which is probably the closest visually to the Walthers car except for the 1-1/2 door instead of full double doors.  Cars above A-50-11 class were built as all-steel 1936 AAR standard designs (W-corner post).

Union Pacific

UP 150953, by 1950 these were 1-1/2 door cars with 9'9" door opening. LMRC 2011 Roster

The Union Pacific 150001-151000 series (Note M) look like good matches for the Walthers cars except that by 1950 they were 1-1/2 door cars with only a 9'9" opening for the doors.  While the next series, 151001-152000 and 152001-152500 series (both Note N) have full 12ft door openings, which will be correct for the Walthers double 6ft doors.  Looks like this series of Walthers cars need to be renumbered for continued service into 1950.

Note M: Gives specs for nailing rail inside the cars between the doors and the end of the car.

Note N: Gives specs for nailing rail inside the cars between the doors and the end of the car.  Applied on cars listed as follows: UP 151080, 151018, 151080, 151135, 15193, 151218, 151430, 151431, 151484, 151504, 151641, 151646, 151671, 151685, 151716, 151725, 151735, 151819, 151852, 151935, 151941, 152313, 152485

UP 150951 showing basic Walthers UP scheme out of the box. - 2022 photo

I have a couple of these cars, like UP 150951 which I never finished and put into service, so I'll probably do some number changing on this one to put it in a better number series, probably 151951 will be the new number after changing the "0" to a "1".

In Closing

SP 67789, modeled with doors open for empty or to stage with lumber loads to be unloaded at lumber yards.

I believe most of these models are going to be found kicking around on-line in the second-hand market or new-old stock at various hobby shops.  Most of the ones I picked up are nearly 20 years old.  Newer runs may have changed number series to be more or less accurate.

Jason Hill

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Freight Car Index Overview - page linking to (ideally) all my freight car blog posts, series, and articles in one place by topic.

UTLX Tank Cars (Part 1) - New Models on the Market - Existing Models Index and new Tangent and Rapdio models.

SP & T&NO B-50-15/16 (Part 1) - Modeling, Research, & Rapido - New gap in plastic models being closed by new Rapido boxcars.  Research and roster data included.