Jim, they were for coolant tanks to drip cold water on hot journals - a primitive but, apparently fairly effective way to deal with hot boxes. Many SP and PFE cars also had them in the 1920s and '30s, though they're in shadow and often difficult to see in photos.

On Nov 28, 2010, at 4:39 PM, Jim Hayes wrote:

One of Don Strack's UP photos is of an S-40-10 stockcar. It has
several
hooks under the side sill. What are they for?

Jim, they were for coolant tanks to drip cold water on hot journals -
a primitive but, apparently fairly effective way to deal with hot
boxes. Many SP and PFE cars also had them in the 1920s and '30s,
though they're in shadow and often difficult to see in photos.

Richard Hendrickson

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

One of Don Strack's UP photos is of an S-40-10 stockcar. It has
several
hooks under the side sill. What are they for?

From Dan Smith's slide-sharing collection, Andy Carlson sent me slides
of PGE and ONT box cars in southern California circa 1958. The PGE box car
was newly built in 1958 but the ONT box car was built in 1947.

The PGE owned fewer than 100 box cars in 1955, and only about 300 in
1959 (after buying 200 new cars in 1958). So I imagine sightings of them
would be very rare indeed in the STMFC era. I believe there was a large
aluminum smelting operation in British Columbia, in addition to lots of
lumber.

That's good news for me. I wanted to do one of my Westerfield USRA cars as Rock but I assumed they had all been rebuilt.
This is an exception contrary to Clark's Law. The more you know , the less you model.

From Dan Smith's slide-sharing collection, Andy Carlson sent me slides
of PGE and ONT box cars in southern California circa 1958. The PGE box car
was newly built in 1958 but the ONT box car was built in 1947.

The PGE owned fewer than 100 box cars in 1955, and only about 300 in
1959 (after buying 200 new cars in 1958). So I imagine sightings of them
would be very rare indeed in the STMFC era. I believe there was a large
aluminum smelting operation in British Columbia, in addition to lots of
lumber.

I agree with Richard AC, ONT, and TH&B box car sightings were not unusual
esp near US-Canadian border. From the ancient FCL (pre-freightcars list) I
seem to recall someone mentioned spotting an AC box car in Mexico.

Tim O'Connor

I can add to this and other reports numerous photos from my own
collection of ONT, TH&B, and Algoma Central cars below the border,
including AC single sheathed cars in Mason City, IA and Minneapolis,
an ONT steel car in San Francisco, and TH&B 40 ton USRA wood sheathed
box cars in New Haven and Kansas City.
Richard Hendrickson

Bill McCoy wrote:

I know CP and CN cars came to the states in the 50's but did cars
belonging to other Canadian carriers (PGE, TH&B, NAR, etc.)come
south of the border in 1957?

I know CP and CN cars came to the states in the 50's but did cars belonging to other Canadian carriers (PGE, TH&B, NAR, etc.)come south of the border in 1957?

Bill,

In 1957 the Ontario Northland (ONT) owned 1,000 40' steel boxcars,
series 90000-90999. Newsprint was a major product shipped by the
ONR to city newspapers including many northeastern U.S. cities. At
any time a large number of these cars would have been south of the
border.

A color photo of ONT 90710 in Columbus Ohio is in Morning Sun book,
Canadian Railways Vol 1.

The same book also has color views of TH&B yellow and black 40'
steel boxcars in Council Bluffs, Iowa,

John Riddell