When

The safety appliance regulations changed as of 1966.  Running boards on affected cars were initially supposed to be removed by 1974, but when that proved impractical the date was moved to 1983.

Some more detail

1966 April 1   Federal ban on running boards for new cars ordered after

1966 summer, late   Low mount hand brake standard on most cars built from this time 

1966 October 1   Federal ban on running boards for new cars delivered 

1967 January 1   High mount hand brakes prohibited on new cars 

1974 January 1   Running boards to be removed from all cars (extended)

1983 December 31   Running boards outlawed on all boxcars/reefers

An answer to question I should have asked

Great info. I have been trying to decide what to do with running boards. Now I know I can have some still in service. My time frame is mid to late 1978.

Thanks guys... for the answer before I asked!

Re: Ken

Based on comments I get from visitors looking over my rolling stock, many don't realize that running boards weren't necessarily rare by then.

This photo is dated 1981,showing a car that obviously retains a running board.  The yellow dot wheel inspection symbol indicates a date of 1978 or later.

Here's one from 1979.  Again note the yellow dot symbol.

This one was dated March of 1978.

Wasn't that timeline for

Wasn't that timeline for interchange service? I thought I had read that cars staying on the home road didn't need to be modified. I could be wrong. It's a pretty fuzzy memory. GS

I thought

it applied to interchange cars originally and up through 1974, which was extended again until 83/84 and was an outright ban on all cars, regardless of interchange or not.

 "many don't realize that

Yeah, a lot of new cars were built in the 50's so were still in pretty good shape when the roof walk ban was conceived. Some soldiered on with roof walks intact and others had them removed and "no roofwalk" warnings applied at the corner ladders....DaveB

I model 1977-1980 UP and I

I model 1977-1980 UP and I can say for sure there were many boxcars with running boards during this time period.  There were great efforts to remove them but it seemed a more difficult task than it would first appear.  There was one group of ex Rock Island 40' PS1 boxcars that went to the CNW after the shutdown.  Cars from this group would regularly appear in New England (B&M in particular) well into the late 80's with running boards intact.  The latest I saw one was at least as late as 1988.  I suspect they were in some kind of captive service as they kept showing up like a bad penny.  Here is a link to a photo dated 1983.                                                         http://www.rr-fallenflags.org/cnw/cnw701733akg.jpg

Steve Solombrino

History please: What were running boards used for? How?

A side track:
As a non-american (Sweden), nevertheless modeling older US railroads, I could use some basic info about things like the roof walks, what were they for, how were they used, etc.
A few short tips would be useful, please.
Also, any simple books about such things,
like also e.g. about roof cupolas on cabooses, how were the grab irons on top used (usually there seems to be little if any room to walk past the cupola on the sides)?
Basic American railroading stuff is what I'm looking for.
Thanks,
Sverk

what were they for?

In the old days the brakemen walked the top of the running train to apply brakes, as air brakes became better developed they used the roof walks to access retainers, set hand brakes, and to relay signals. The advent of small portable radios made the relaying of signals unnecessary, dynamic brakes reduced the need for retainers, and the general move toward more safety made climbing on roofs undesirable so there was no need for the roof walks anymore.When I was a kid I had lots of fun running down the roofs so I hated to see them go.....DaveB 

gives me the picture, thanks

Thanks Dave, gives me a better idea of their use.
As far as I know, European (or at least Swedish) trains did not have roof walks.
But they sure had brakemen, or boys, but they had to sit in minimal cabins with a brake wheel inside, on the short end of freight cars, every couple of cars apart.  They had to listen to whistle signals from the loco telling them to increase or decrease the amount of brake force.
In junior highschool I had a friend whose father in his youth had worked as a brake boy for a while.
I got to hear how they worked it, including mischief they played on engineers they didn't like, applying a bit of braking when they got to uphill sections of the line.... Sverk
 

Brake boy cabins

     Hi Sverk,   That certainly sounds a lot safer than riding on top of the cars. I don't know how the old USA trainmen survived on top of icy cars in the winter? Perhaps spiked boots?? ......DaveB

Unfortunately....

....many many didn't survive!

I saw a picture years ago of a PRR 86' High Cube which had roofwalks and I wanted to model it but I have never been able to find it again.