Seaboard Air Lines B-3,4,5 class composite boxcars (Part 1) - Researching & Looking

The Inspiration

SAL B-class boxcar at Bartlett on the Jawbone branch - Leo Barusch photo - Jason Hill collection (color balanced & crop-enlarged)

History: (quoted from ProtoCraft's website SAL-1 decal set) "The Seaboard owned 4,000 of these composite box cars, starting in with 1,000 of the B-3’s in 1926; road numbers 12000-12999. In 1929, the SAL took delivery of a 1,000 B-4’s; road number 13001-13999; and in 1930, 1,000 B-5’s from Pullman, numbered 15000-15999, and 1,000 from Richmond Car Works, numbered 16000-16999. Cars are painted box car red with white stencil paste lettering "

I'm guessing that the B-3s might have had wooden ends, but possibly steel.  I would think that by the B-4s in 1929 they would have steel ends.  The 3rd photo below clearly shows plate-steel ends on the later group of B-5s from 1930.

I have no information on the roofs.  The trucks are basically Andrews, but the later class cars seem to have a Andrews-Dalman 2-Level hybrid truck.

Prototype Photos 

- links directly credited from Protocraft's website - fair use to discuss the prototype.

Seaboard 12869, B-3 class - Protocraft's website

It looks like this car was resheathed in steel siding.  This B-3 car has Andrews trucks, but with more standard bolster/spring package.  The car has similar metal or ply-metal doors to the rebuilt SP B-50-15/16s as well.  However, the prototype photo I have at Bartlett shows a wood-sheathed car.

Seaboard 15138, Pullman B-5 class - Protocraft's website

It looks like this car was being loaded with some sort of dry powder, and it carries plenty of chalk marks too!  Notice also that the B-4/5 prototypes still have rather unique Andrews-Dalman 2-level trucks.  Only the last photo below shows the ends, which are a plate-steel type.  For the Pullman-built and earlier cars, I don't know what type of end they should have, or for that matter, what roof.

Seaboard 16593, Richmond Car Works B-5 class - Protocraft's website

Sadly all the models I know of to kitbash a car like these Seaboard B-3/4/5s from are Pratt Truss, not the Howe Truss (the diagonal's are backwards on all the models).  These Seaboard cars are actually closer to the SP's B-50-15/16 class, at least in terms of which truss pattern they have.

In Closing

Most of my blog articles have some sort of perspiration that comes from the inspiration to show for itself.  However, as of March 2024 I don't have a starting point to work from.

SAL XM-1 Boxcar - Sunshine Models

I know Sunshine at one time did a model of these in HO, so I might just have to wait until one of them shows up on the second hand market.  But I also know that out-of-production resin is an expensive proposition and sometimes a bit perilous with risks of brittle resin and damaged decals, etc.

SP 3237 Bartlett on the Jawbone branch - Leo Barusch photo - Jason Hill Collection (color balanced, uncropped photo)

I like to think that as I get the Jawbone Branch built, it will be home to some prototypically weird and unique cars to break up the 'regular' foreign freight cars that show up.  So I suppose for now, I'll keep pondering my options and dreaming of a Seaboard boxcar to make this photo happen when I have Bartlett built on my layout.

Update 2024-03-14:

Given that the Sunshine Resin Kit was listed as XM-1, I looked on F&C's website and found that they do still offer F&C XM-1s for several railroads, but not for the Seaboard per se. 

B&M 71870, F&C 6006 XM-1 kit with Pullman "flat panel" roof

The F&C 6000/6009 Kits with Flat Pullman Roof's look close.  Note sure about the ends being accurate, but I'll probably do with that as a stand-in.  

6006 - Boston & Maine 40' ONE PIECE BODY XM-1 SS Boxcar Pullman "Flat" Roof Boxcar With Decals $49.99 - Note when I ordered this kit in April 2024, F&C was running a special discount on their car kits.

I'm looking at using the something like the 6006 kit.  I have heard from some of the SAL experts that these cars had fishbelly centersills, which from the photos look to be about 1/2 the difference of a straight sill to the very deep sills of something like an Accurail boxcar.

NC&StL 15337, a kitbash of Accurail 36ft Fowler Boxcar to match prototype photo.

I'll probably look into getting one of these cars and then work on the decal options to piece something together, like I did on the Accurail Fowler kitbash of NC&STL 15337 car.

Update 2024-04-27:

I have ordered the XM-1 which will be kitbashed.  I'm thinking now to make it one of the B-5 class cars which had Dalman 2-Level trucks, just so I can use my Tahoe Model Works trucks.  I may decide to rough out a 3d printed underframe for ease of kitbashing.  So we'll see how well the kitbashing turns out.  F&C says that they don't want to offer a kit that is "wrong", which I completely understand.  Hopefully, my car might be sort of a pathfinder to making a "correct" SAL B-3/4/5 class boxcar.

Jason Hill

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