Mel;

Unfortunately, coke, but I am sure they hoped it wasn’t still hot!

I find these conversions really baffling.  Not a good idea.

PRR had some early conversions for wood chips, and others for sawdust, but they looked more like a regular box car. 

Elden Gatwood

Doug;

The coke was quenched with water at the large plants, but it did not always behave.  Sometimes the pore space between hunks/chunks was too small to allow much water to penetrate, and it kept cooking.  There were also times the water cooked off too  quick, and chunks inside kept too hot.

There are some great photos of toasted box cars with hot coke still inside, while the wood is all burnt off.

I saw several cooked cars around the big by-products plants around Pittsburgh, growing up.  They were easy to ID.

The Morning Sun Color Guide on the Rock Island (IIRC), has a great one.

Elden Gatwood

Wasn’t the coke quenched in water before loading into cars?

Thank you, Michael!

Eric Hansmann

Murfreesboro, TN

Thanks for posting this, Bob!

This might be a little earlier than the 1915 date indicated on the site. I can’t quite read the weigh stencil but note the lack of proper sill steps and hand holds to meet the 1911 Safety Appliance Act amendment. The car was built in 1909-1910.

There was a lag in updating the cars to meet these new standards, so 1915 might be correct.

Eric Hansmann

Murfreesboro, TN

Thanks, Doug!

Elden Gatwood

Thanks, Ben!

I should have known you’d have the answer!

Elden Gatwood

Elden, my understanding is the racks were for transporting flats of tomatoes. No livestock involved. Certainly not poultry. Attached is an interior photo of the racks.

Folks;

Have any of you turned up any more on these cars?

https://digital.hagley.org/PRR_12857

Was there a method behind the madness of using wooden box cars, and not hoppers, for shipping potentially hot coke?

I have not found the correspondence on this, but would sure like to understand.

Elden Gatwood

Folks;

How were these racks used?  If for poultry, how unloaded?

https://digital.hagley.org/PRR_12653

Thanks!

Elden Gatwood

Another interesting shot, Bob.  I don’t recall seeing an end constructed this way as early as 1947.

Was this car in service in this scheme, or is this a builder’s image which was repainted after the photo was taken?

Schuyler

Thanks, Bob, for sending these around.  This shot in particular is amazingly sharp,  It’s almost clear what even the small the lettering is on the car. 

And one other thing: after looking at this car, are we still debating how deep the scoring on our models to replicate the appearance of cars like this?  This makes my old Main Line Models cars look very realistic.

Schuyler