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

 

From: main@RealSTMFC.groups.io [mailto:main@RealSTMFC.groups.io] On Behalf Of Schuyler Larrabee via Groups.Io
Sent: Tuesday, February 25, 2020 1:46 PM
To: main@RealSTMFC.groups.io
Subject: Re: [RealSTMFC] Photo: Freight Cars The Departure Yard At Boston Freight Terminal

 

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

 

From: main@RealSTMFC.groups.io <main@RealSTMFC.groups.io> On Behalf Of Tim O'Connor
Sent: Tuesday, February 25, 2020 1:42 PM
To: main@RealSTMFC.groups.io
Subject: Re: [RealSTMFC] Photo: Freight Cars The Departure Yard At Boston Freight Terminal

 

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?

 

On Tue, Feb 25, 2020, 8:17 AM Bob Chaparro via Groups.Io <chiefbobbb=verizon.net@groups.io> wrote:

Photo: Freight Cars The Departure Yard At Boston Freight Terminal

A Donald Haskel photo taken in August 1960:

https://www.railpictures.net/photo/305071/

A good variety of cars and roads.

Bob Chaparro

Hemet, CA

 

--
Tim O'Connor
Sterling, Massachusetts

On Feb 26, 2020, at 7:32 AM, Doc Bond <boomer1944@...> wrote:

I thought having tank cars next to caboose was not allowed... so?

Gordon Spalty

From: main@RealSTMFC.groups.io [mailto:main@RealSTMFC.groups.io] On Behalf Of Dennis Storzek
Sent: Wednesday, February 26, 2020 8:08 AM
To: main@RealSTMFC.groups.io
Subject: Re: [RealSTMFC] NP Mystery Car

On Wed, Feb 26, 2020 at 12:27 AM, np328 wrote:

  From the spur that the photographer was on in the prior photo. A D&RGW gon is being unloaded at A E Powell. Note all the different coal sizes.The car to the left appears to have limestone(?) Over the large pile of coal I believe are the towers of the other two train stations.

Can't be limestone, waaay too big a car for any mineral product, must either be sawdust or slash. Was cut slash sold as firewood back in those years?

Dennis Storzek

----- Original Message -----

From: np328

To: main@RealSTMFC.groups.io

Sent: Wednesday, February 26, 2020 3:27 AM

Subject: Re: [RealSTMFC] NP Mystery Car

   I had always thought the cars LCL however had missed the roof hatches.   The location though is Spokane, looking west and just east of the NP Spokane station, and about to cross over the intersection of Division and Sprague. 

I'll attach some photos from my collections.
  Spokane looking west towards the former NP station, now the only passenger station and beyond the date of this list will be the Amtrak station.  Circa 1928 all photos. 

   From the spur that the photographer was on in the prior photo. A D&RGW gon is being unloaded at A E Powell. Note all the different coal sizes.The car to the left appears to have limestone(?) Over the large pile of coal I believe are the towers of the other two train stations.

At UP tower, (for Mike and Jeff) and that is the UP running from left to right. Note the UP style lower quadrant home signal guarding the NP main. On the lower left, the descending spur has a derail and dwarf signal. I'd always wondered where Lionel copied switch machine shrouds and were they accurate? Looks like they were. And the yard lead beyond the crossing, what kind of modeler would build a yard lead like that?    

East of the downtown area were the Spokane Union Stockyards. They are behind our right shoulder in the photo. The NP mainline is in the trench on the left. 

The NP's Parkwater engine terminal. Turntable is 85 foot. If you thought your modeling space was tight, look at all the frogs at the turntables edge. This was not uncommon for NP. 

The NP's largest (in terms of cars that could be serviced) icing station was at Parkwater. A 1300 foot platform serving 29 refrigerator cars on each side. 

Some Spokane from when switch lanterns were lite each evening.                                                              Jim Dick 

On February 25, 2020 at 5:20 AM Ryan Laroche <laroche1987@...> wrote:

https://web.archive.org/web/20160324162818/http://sunshinekits.com/index.html

The wayback machine is an excellent resource for situations such as this... 

Ryan Laroche 
Red Deer County, AB

On 26 Feb 2020, at 00:55, Rich Yoder <oscale48@comcast.net> wrote:

Hi Paul,
There are several differences. Door hardware, Door track both top and bottom. Ladder rungs on WAB - C&IE has a ladder. It appears that the WAB has a fish belly center sill. I doubt they were built by the same company.
Rich Yoder

-----Original Message-----
From: main@RealSTMFC.groups.io <main@RealSTMFC.groups.io> On Behalf Of Paul Doggett via Groups.Io
Sent: Tuesday, February 18, 2020 10:57 AM
To: RealSTMFC@groups.io
Subject: [RealSTMFC] What is the major difference between these cars ???

Hi what are the ends on the C&EI car and are the any other major differences between them.

Paul Doggett England 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿

Not to hijack this thread, but does anyone know where I could buy some replacement Andrews trucks for the Life-Like USRA switch engines?  I have twice now suffered a melted truck thanks to a short across a gap.  At one time extra tenders were available, and I fixed the first melted truck by replacing it with a truck from an extra tender, but I now have a sound-equipped DCC 0-8-0 that is useless.

Oh, and oops, I realize that on this list, I need to mention that I use my 0-8-0s to switch FREIGHT CARS!!

Whew!

Schuyler

On Feb 25, 2020, at 6:57 PM, Hudson Leighton <hudsonl@...> wrote:

This car appears to have been a LCL Transfer Car, but whats with all the small doors?

One suggestion is a sawdust car.

The notes with the photo say Tacoma Division, but one respondent says it looks like Spokane.

-Hudson

<73510-012 Tacoma NP.jpg>