Can anyone help me and identify the origin of this GN box car?
It looks like ex-PRR to me but I can't place it -- like a double
door version of an X37?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/150715641509

Tim O'Connor

Tim.
  Yes it is a PRR box.  X37.
  Dennis Williams/Owner
www.resinbuilders4u.com


________________________________
From: Tim O'Connor <timboconnor@...>
To: stmfc@...
Sent: Friday, December 16, 2011 9:09 PM
Subject: [STMFC] GN 14095 ex-PRR??



 


Can anyone help me and identify the origin of this GN box car?
It looks like ex-PRR to me but I can't place it -- like a double
door version of an X37?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/150715641509

Tim O'Connor




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

On Dec 16, 2011, at 6:09 PM, Tim O'Connor wrote:

Can anyone help me and identify the origin of this GN box car?
It looks like ex-PRR to me but I can't place it -- like a double
door version of an X37?

Yes, Tim, ex-PRR X37B, and they were built with that odd door
arrangement (some had Superior doors). Note the PRR riveted steel
roof (guaranteed to leak) and the short ladders with grabs below
them. GN bought a bunch of them second hand in the '60s. as well as
some DT&I round roof cars, because the double doors provided fork
lift access, which was becoming essential for cars in wood products
service.

Richard Hendrickson

--- In STMFC@..., Tim O'Connor wrote: Can anyone help me and identify the origin of this GN box car? It looks like ex-PRR to me but I can't place it -- like a double door version of an X37?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/150715641509

Tim, it looks to be a former PRR double-door X37B from the 1940 lot of 500 cars. The trucks are apparently replacements, since the early X37Bs were built with National Type B trucks. (It's not one of the 1000 X37Bs built in 1941; they had Superior 7-panel doors, and had trucks with the 2D-F8 sideframe and a spring package showing three springs to the front, so doubly not a match to the photo.) In addition to replacement trucks, the car in this photo also received a long side sill reinforcement.

To explain the GN paint and lettering, we'd have to look into the future past this list's cutoff. In the early '60s, several Pacific Northwest railroads had a shortage of boxcars suitable for finished lumber; the Hill roads turned to leasing refurbished/rebuilt double-door 40ft and 50ft boxcars (e.g., NP's ex-DT&I X31/X32 round-roof boxcars). In 1964, GN leased 500 former PRR X37B 40ft double-door boxcars from their subsidiary, the Glacier Park Co. (I'm sure it made sense to the accountants). GN 14000-14499 came originally from series within PRR 64400-67399. All received mineral red paint and the 72in two-color "Great Northern Railway" herald with side-facing goat on the right side over the dimensional date, but were not lettered with the "Great Northern" name. Scott Thompson's "Great Northern Equipment Color Pictorial Book One - Box Cars and Stock Cars" has photos of GN 14046, a 1941 X37B with a short sidesill reinforcement under the Superior doors; and GN 14440, a 1940 X37B with a long sidesill reinforcement and Youngstown Steel Doors, like the ebay photo. The Jan 65 ORER gives consistent 10ft5in IH and 15ft1in EXH for all 500 cars in the GN 14000-14499 series, so no X37A double-doors snuck in - they were 2in shorter than the X37B.

Hope this helps, Dave Sieber, Reno NV

The GN doesn't seem to have received any round roof cars. But other STMFC era built cars were aquired in 1963 (former EL cars in GN series 15000-15549) and in 1964 (former IHB 40' single door cars rebuilt into 50' with a 6' sliding main door and a 6' plug auxiliary door in the GN 17300-17999 series). These two series received the slant serif road name over vermilion paint scheme introduced before 1960 (1956 actually) to try and stay anywhere near the STMFC theme!

All three series are featured in GNRHS ref sheet no. 331.

Staffan Ehnbom

Richard misspoke, the Northern Pacific bought the round roof cars, after the end of this list though.
Brian Carlson

Thanks everyone for the abundant and information answers! I had
forgotten I'd bought a Sunshine X37B (44.4) years ago -- Now I have
a fun kitbash project in mind for it!

When it rains, it does pour! :-)

Tim "soaked to the skin" O'Connor

On Dec 17, 2011, at 5:21 AM, Staffan Ehnbom wrote:

The GN doesn't seem to have received any round roof cars.

Staffan is, of course, correct. I was thinking of the NP's second
hand round roof cars. My apologies.


Richard Hendrickson