Those are
all in service cars my friends. Those are not the RIP
tracks in South Boston Freight Terminal. Look over by the
brick smokestack and sand tower to see two switchers – the
S-1 is working and smoking, the HH660 probably idling.
Now, since Boston was a terminal, there is no telling how
long the foreign road cars lingered before returning home.
There are
three NH box cars in the photo;
McGinnis
scheme (black with large “NH”) behind the Superior reefer
Script
herald (BCR, very faded lettering) coupled to the right of
the Superior reefer
The storage
car that is on the ground to the right of the script
herald car and to the left of the RI box car.
Notice
there is a phone pole directly behind the script herald
boxcar described above.
The storage
car is one of the NHs old boxes, possibly 70200 series (I
have a photo of NH 70218) which were rebuilt in 1935 with
steel underframes from earlier NH 170000-170999-series
30-ton box cars.
The 40’
steel boxcars arrived beginning 1942 but there were still
over 120 wood box cars in service in Sept 1948. Beginning
post-war many of the wood cars were converted to
non-revenue service, which is the fate of the car in this
photo. A white “NH” is visible above the “W-series” work
car number. Some cars were grounded and used for storage
which appears to be the fate of this car. The yellow
visible on the side is a patch of paint only so a black
lettered stencil could be applied. This could have been
applied while the car was still on trucks or not. Could
have said anything from “sand service only” to “property
of mechanical dept.”
Peter Ness
Agreed it’s a patch, but I think it’s
a painted patch, painting out something, like a “return
to” notice. It’s a bit too ragged to be a carpenter’s
parch.
Schuyler
It looks like fresh unpainted wood i.e. "patches" to me,
Schuyler. I do not recognize
the cars at all. They don't look like anything that I
know of from the New Haven. I'm
curious if anyone can figure out what they are. But I
agree the photo scan is so poor
that nothing can be inferred about the lettering.
Tim O'Connor
On 2/25/2020 12:32 PM, Schuyler Larrabee via Groups.Io
wrote:
I don’t think
those are “repairs.” And at that distance and the age
of the cars, dimensions and weight information may be
there, faded, but not visible.
Schuyler
From: main@RealSTMFC.groups.io <main@RealSTMFC.groups.io>
On Behalf Of mel perry
Sent: Tuesday, February 25, 2020 11:48 AM
To: main@realstmfc.groups.io
Subject: Re: [RealSTMFC] Photo: Freight Cars The
Departure Yard At Boston Freight Terminal
couple
of ss boxcars, apparently in inhouse service as all
dims and weight
remarks
all removed, and appears that
both
had repairs to the same spot.on
both.cars,
just to the left of the door,
can't
remember that being a weak
structural
spot in the ss design?
--
Tim O'Connor
Sterling, Massachusetts
