What to do with old box car (or any old car)

Railroads have been recycling old equipment for a long time. Also, private industry uses old rail cars for all kinds of purposes. I have gathered pictures and location of such equipment in the Chicago area and put up a webiste featuring this equipment.

I call the equipment Static Railroad equipment.

The web site is: http://www.dhke.com/rrus/static/

Also, on the Utah site is couple of pictures i took of of static equipment.

That web site is: http://www.dhke.com/railroad/utah/

Comments are always welcome.

Enjoy!

Box Car Transmitter House

One group of radio stations in Farmington, NM, uses an old D&RGW reefer to house their main and backup FM transmitters up on the hill.  The car provides unmatched security, including resisting "target practice" by local gun enthusiasts.  It is also easy to maintain a cool inside temperature due to its ability to resist radiant heating.

Consider slapping an old reefer next to any kind of communications tower (with flashing red or white lights, of course) on your layout.

-Lee Reisinger, Topeka, KS

Box Car Flea Market

On the West side of Shreveport, Louisiana is a big Flea Market.  There are many old wood boxcars that have been converted to use for flea market stalls.  This is located out towards Greenwood, Louisiana just off of I-20.  Tracks run behind there too.

Den

Other Uses For Train Cars

A few Pictures and ideas

Regards

John

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A man may imagine things that are false, but he can only understand things that are true, for if the things be false, the apprehension of them is not understanding.  Isaac Newton

RR Junk yard is a possibility

Some pictures of old equipment - McPherson, KS 1978 near the Missouri Pacific tracks

Farm Storage

On a recent visit to my parents fram, I was able to capture some of these pics.  It was used to store grain and other random items.  My grandpa was the one who bought it, I'm thinking around the 50's.  Apparently there were some other farmers in the area that also bought them.

Grain was augured into the hole cut in the upper left.

U.P. 14207

Interior

I would love to incorporate this into my future railroad.

Leroy

RR Junk yard is a possiblity?

Actually, a boxcar graveyard, like modeling a train wreck, is an extremely difficult modeling task, especially with steel cars.  I've seen attempts made by attacking plastic models with soldering irons and other tools, but it never looks even remotely convincing.  Just having some grounded, mostly intact, cars would work OK using off the shelf models. but caved in and crushed car bodies would need to be scratchbuilt to get a realistic appearance.

I'd love to see someone do a good job of something like that.

Post-wreck scene?

Here's another idea, and one I have never seen modeled (as far as I can remember, anyway):

Use a couple old cars to model the aftermath of a wreck.  Sometimes wrecked cars are simple shoved out of the way in the interest of getting the line open as quickly as possible, and then removed at some more convenient time.  I remember one RBOX car which sat beside the main line near Danville, VA for several years after being involved in a rear-end collision.  It's been picked up now, but there was a time when I thought it was going to be a permanent part of the landscape.

Old boxcar

I see this boxcar every time I bike the rail trail from Northampton to Leeds. Used by Acme Auto Body shop just to the right of the boxcar. The brick building behind the boxcar is long gone.

http://photos.nerail.org/showpic/?photo=200602161406535691.jpg&order=byposter&page=1&key=Squeaky

Rich

Bike Trail

Rich, that's the same bike trail that runs near my house.  We took it once from Farmington, CT all the way to the border and, from what I can tell, it goes right through NoHo.  Now I have more of an excuse to head up that way!

Rail trail

Southwick and Westfield doing rail trail work. Southampton group forming soon. Rails and ties still in place as is an old bridge near me.

Pickup the Manhan trail at Coleman Rd in Easthampton. Bike to Northampton. Cross King St. You are there.

I live one mile from the Coleman St access point. I work with the Manhan group.

http://manhanrailtrail.org/

Info about the Northampton trail also.

Rich

RBOX

So that's where RailBoxes go when they die...

Makes me feel old...

It's funny to see a Railbox reduced to this.  When I started in the hobby seriously, one of the latest innovations in prototype railroading in the RMCs I had just started reading was Railbox...and now those cars have lived out their lives and are going to scrap. 

Other Stuff>They are not boxcars, But!

I took these pictures on a trip to Oklahoma a few weeks back. I thought they would fit well in this post.

Regards

John

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It's later than it's ever been. Flip Wilson

A few from Iowa

The IAIS has used a number of interesting de-trucked box cars for storage in its Council Bluffs, IA engine facility. Here are a few prototype and model pics:

Ex-NP PS-1:

Ex-LNA&C SIECO 50':

Above two cars in place on the layout, built from Branchline and Athearn models, respectively:

Ex-BN 733000-series (xx-CB&Q) 60' beer car:

Model of the above car, scratched from styrene, with metal ends and a blank roof from an old Ambroid kit.  The ribs, doors, and storage cage are all styrene.

This ex-C&O box car is used by the IAIS for MOW storage at Atlantic, IA.  During the spring 2005 era I model, it was still on its own trucks, sitting on an unused yard track:

...however, it was later de-trucked and moved to the edge of the small yard:

I plan to model it in the former state using a Kadee PS-1.

"Green Storage"

Joe,

We've all seen re-purposed freight cars used for storage (railroads going "green" , but I think you take it a step further with your modeling.  Somehow, something as simple as an old boxcar -sans trucks- looks so much better on the layout when the weathering, location and installation is generally modeled from a real-life scenario.

It's amazing how much "believability" is added to a scene when it's a copy of the prototype.

Nicely done!

-Jack

Thanks Jack.

Thanks very much Jack.  I don't have the creativity of guys like Tom Patterson and Tom Johnson who can create a believable scene by combining elements from many prototypes.  I just take photos along my part of the IAIS and then look for what it'll take to recreate them on the layout.  Just the thing for a simple-minded guy like me. 

It's funny, but I barely noticed these box cars until the time came to actually start modeling this scene.  That seems to be the case with many of my projects.  They always seems to teach me a lot about the prototype I'm trying to recreate.