Below is a link to an image of a biplane being unloaded from a boxcar in Phoenix, AZ, around 1930. This image is from the Arizona Memory Project

The Arizona Memory Project (http://azmemory.lib.az.us/index.php) is an online effort to provide access to the primary sources in Arizona libraries, archives, museums and other cultural institutions. This initiative provides the opportunity to view some of the best examples of government documents, photographs, maps, and objects that chronicle Arizona's past and present.

Here is the image link:
http://azmemory.lib.az.us/cdm4/item_viewer.php?CISOROOT=/ahfrein&CISOPTR=147&CISOBOX=1&REC=7

or

http://tinyurl.com/ooljjd

Description from the site: "A Kinner American Eagle being unloaded from a boxcar at the Phoenix railroad docks. Shipping by train was just as economical as flying and offered less exposure to the aircraft. The wings and props were crated and the fuselage covered and wheels blocked. "

Bob Chaparro
Hemet, CA

On May 22, 2009, at 12:42 PM, Bob Chaparro wrote:

Below is a link to an image of a biplane being unloaded from a
boxcar in Phoenix, AZ, around 1930. This image is from the Arizona
Memory Project

FWIW, the "box car" was actually a Santa Fe end door furniture and
automobile car of class Fe-L, Fe-n, or Fe-O.

Richard Hendrickson

It's clearly stenciled Fe-N, BLT 7-13

They describe that as unloading an airplane "at the Phoenix docks"... and they've got an airport called "Sky Harbor"... sounds like a case of Ocean Envy.
Scott Pitzer

Bob -

Wow!! Thanks a lot for the link to that photo! My ex-father-in-law and his brother owned the very last American Eagle byplane in existence! After WWII, his brother purchased one of these planes that had been a trainer at the AFB in Ft Stockton, Texas. He pulled it behind his car 60 miles down a dirt road to the family ranch near Sanderson, Texas. It had those solid tires on the steel dish wheels, just like the photo! It had a rough ride to the ranch, but the brother commenced to rebuilding it. As an aside, a second brother of the ex-father-in-law had been killed in WWII in a plane accident. As the plane was nearing completion, their mother grew alarmed that they were really going to FLY it - the ranch had a dirt runway, but the plane was not airworthy when it was bought surplus in Ft Stockton. To make a long story short, their mother took a piece of the crankshaft off the workbench late one night, saddled up her horse, and buried it somewhere on the 60,000 acre ranch! Till her dying day (at age 99) she could not remember where she had buried it (or so she said)! For 50 years, the wood fabric covered wings (in original condition) and fuselage (steel tubing with fabric covering) sat in the barn, with the radial engine in pieces on the work table. I heard that they finally sold it in the late 1990's to a Mexican aircraft enthusiast for a couple of thousand dollars (!!!).

Sorry for the lack of RR content - I was just amazed to see an old photo of this type of plane!

A.T. Kott