Thanks Bob,

That's exactly what I was looking for. And I'm surprised that no one (to my knowledge) has ever offered a kit for the M-8 and M-8a considering that there were a lot of these cars built since they roughly made up half of the B&O box car roster during their hey day. And you could say a lot longer since you said that you discovered a M-8 in the 60s.

- Steve


To: STMFC@...
From: rwitt_2000@...
Date: Tue, 19 Oct 2010 02:24:12 +0000
Subject: [STMFC] Re: early 20th Cen B&O box cars






Steve from the 1920 B&O Rolling Stock Roster:

Class M-8 65000 to 72699: 1,333 cars (5% of the box carfleet)
Class M-8 75003 to 75998; 195 cars (1%)
Class M-8 77000 to 80385; 443 cars (2%)
Class M-8a 81000 to 81009; 10 cars (0%)
Class M-8 81033 to 85997; 1,034 cars (4%)
Class M-8a 86000 to 90499; 3,576 cars (13%)
Class M-11 90500 to 92699; 1,370 cars (5%)
Class M-8a 93057 to 99999; 6,745 cars (25%)
Class M-19 185650 to 185999; 346 cars (1%; 80,000 LB CAPY)

The B&O class M-8 boxcars were ubiquitous from when they were first
introduced in ~1896 until they were removed from revenue service and
placed in non-revenue service in the 1920's. The cars originally had
truss-rod underframes, but these were replaced with steel center sills
in the early teens to extend their lives. The M-11 and M-19 also had
steel center sills.

I found a M-8 in Springfield, Illinois in the early 1960s, took a photo,
but did not know to look for the steel center sill.

I assume you have information on the more modern box cars with steel
underframes, the class M-13 and class M-15.

I hope this information helps fill out your roster. If you are modeling
the B&O in 1919 you should purchase the Summary of Equipment for 1920
(the 1919 one is not available) from the B&ORR Historical Society item
#74020. http://www.borhs.org/Shopping/index.html

It would be a worth while investment in your modeling "tools".

Regards,

Bob Witt

--- In STMFC@..., S hed <shed999@...> wrote:

Hi Everyone,

I am HO-scale modeler that is focusing on 1919 and I need help

identifying some B&O box cars from that year.

I've noticed from my 1919 ORER that the B&O had several identical

series of box cars but I have no clue what class cars they are since
there doesn't seem to be a handy (and free) resource for me to
reference. These series of box cars share the same dimensions and I'm
not sure if they are the same class of car or not.

IL -> 36' 0"; IH -> 7' 7¼"; OL -> 36' 11¾"; OH -> 14' 0¾";

DOOR -> 5' 6"; CAPY -> 60,000 LB

In 1919 the B&O and its subsidiaries owned 27,517 box cars and these

series of cars made up 55% of the box car fleet. Here are the series of
cars (all of them are B&O lettered cars):

65000 to 72699: 1,333 cars (5% of the box car fleet)
75003 to 75998; 195 cars (1%)
77000 to 80385; 443 cars (2%)
81000 to 81009; 10 cars (0%)
81033 to 85997; 1,034 cars (4%)
86000 to 90499; 3,576 cars (13%)
90500 to 92699; 1,370 cars (5%)
93057 to 99999; 6,745 cars (25%)
185650 to 185999; 346 cars (1%; 80,000 LB CAPY)

The subsidiaries that I am including with this list is the B&OCT,

Cincy Hamilton & Dayton and the Coal & Coke railroads.

Thanks. Steve Hedlund, Everett, WA

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