Research - Freight Car Fleet Development; ATSF - Part 3

At this point I have gone as far as I want to go into the details of the Santa Fe boxcar fleet for this period. I still have some things that I haven't been able to identify but there is enough information that I can buy boxcars with confidence.

The thing I found most interesting is that the 50' cars only made up a little more than half the numbers, the 40' cars were pretty close behind.

There were approximately 7600(+) 40' boxcars still in service in '74-'75 and the bulk of that (6388) were made up of 17 types. Among these are three series that I can seem to pin down; 22232-22424, 33500-35999 and 50000-50309. The known types are (from largest to smallest): Bx-60, Bx-85, Bx-63. Bx-62, Bx-126, Bx-85, Bx-57, Bx-59, Bx-11/12 (rebuilds), Bx-136, Bx-13, Bx-115, Bx-136 and Bx-153.

There were approximately 8900(+) 50' boxcars in service for '74-'75 and the bulk of that (6955) were made up of 26 types. There are a lot more series here that I can't identify; 4100-4399, 48050-48549, 8000-8999, 48601-48999, 49501-49899, 47550-47849, 9700-9998, 47850-48409, 13500-13999, 42750-42949,  49300-49499, 4100-4399, 62000-62299. The known types are (from largest to smallest): Bx-72, Bx-81, Bx-69, Bx-145, Bx-74, Bx-75, Bx-66, Bx-70, Bx-79, Bx-154, Bx-163, Bx-61, Bx-82, Bx-64, Bx-178 and Bx-170.

I'll cast about for the missing series and see what I can come up, but the next step is really trying to figure out what boxcar types are actually commercially available. That might take even more effort since manufacturers typically don't indicate which Santa Fe boxcar type they are selling. Should be interesting.

Research - Freight Car Fleet Development; ATSF - Part 2

I started with a spreadsheet and translated all the boxcar data from the Railway Registry PDF into something that I could manipulate and add more data too. There are almost 300 different boxcar series listed in the Registry so it was a bit of painstaking task to get it all in there and I'm sure there are a few mistakes. I actually caught some typos in the original manuscript just to through a bit of a twist into the research.

The first thing I did was take the Shock Control Era book and compare the numeric series with those on the spreadsheet and add a couple columns for the boxcar identification and the year it went into service. I am not concerned with the year it went out of service if it existed on the 1975 Railway Registry then its fair game for inclusion on the layout. This gave me the type for just over 1/3 of the list (122 series to be precise), which represents 60 different boxcar types that were built or rebuilt on or after 1954. The rest were built prior to that date and of course the reference book for that is out of print and going for $100+ when you can find it. Once the other reference book, "Santa Fe Railway Listing of Freight Cars by Class and Car Numbers, 1906-1991", arrives I should be able to find the  the rest of the boxcars classes on the list. Of those already identified I can eliminate anything longer than a 50' car (the layout is being designed around the brick canyon, which will limit freight cars to 50' or less) and any car exclusive to the automobile industry. I can further eliminate cars that are rare as they were unlikely to have appeared in the Patch section of the LA Warehouse District unless they happen to provide service to an industry in that area.

At this point in time there is still a significant number of 40' boxcars on the roster. These consist primarily of Bx-85s,  Bx-136s, Bx-126s and Bx-115s. Not surprisingly the 50' boxcars make up the majority of the roster at this point.The most numerous are Bx-72s, Bx-69s, Bx-66s, Bx81s, Bx-74s, Bx-145s, and Bx-70s. Now, admittedly, the data is not complete but it gives me start on what I can find commercially. Of course manufacturer's don't make this easy, rarely do you find the Santa Fe's class listed on the side of a boxcar. So that will take a little more digging up than I care to think about.

Santa Fe Bx-85, 40' boxcar

Santa Fe Bx-115, a 40' boxcar

Santa Fe Bx-126, a 40' boxcar

Santa Fe Bx-136, a 40' boxcar

Santa Fe Bx-69, a 50' boxcar

Santa Fe Bx-81, a 50' boxcar