Era

One camp will tell you its your railroad and you can run anything you want.

Since you asked the question I will assume that answer isn't what you were looking for and isn't particularly helpful.

If you are modeling 1937 and its a 1937 design then those cars will be a small minority of the car fleet.  Unless you are modeling that road they would be really rare.  Lets say in 1937 they built 500 of each car, and the national rail fleet is 500,000 cars (low estimate), that would be pretty diluted.

On the other hand if they have built dates in the 1940's then it is possible that those railroads would not have bought cars built to the 1937 design until much later and they would not have existed in 1937.

Options:

1. Ignore it, your railroad, run what you want.
2. Ignore it, the cars are in the ballpark and appropriate for the era +-5 years.
3. Research to see when those cars in that series were built, then make a decision if they weren't built yet.
4. Research to see when that design cars were built by those railroads and if necessary change the car numbers and built date to make them closer or within your era.

Resources

Rob,

Here's a web page with more info on the AAR 1937 design box cars. The most helpful link there is marked as "Table of as built 1937 AAR Box Car Prototypes." This PDF file will show you when the cars were built for specific railroads. The table also denotes quantities built, car series numbers, installed hardware (brake wheel, running board, ends), car class, builder, and more. I recommend downloading the file for easy review on your home computer when a box car question arises.

I have used the PDF table extensively for several box car upgrades. I shared Branchline box car construction tips here on the MRH forum a few years ago and some upgrades shortly afterwards.

I would recommend adding earlier era prototype box car designs to your 1937 fleet. Kline & Culotta's excellent Postwar Freight Car Fleet is an excellent review of the freight car fleet of that era, including many older freight cars nearing the end of service after WW2. The book should be of help for your own 1937 fleet development.

Best of luck!

Eric

Boxcar Prototypes

Hi Rob--Dave is, of course, correct with your options. But, like he said: since you asked. There is a lot of information available to you.

If you go to this chart, you can see the original data on the 1937 AAR design boxcars:

http://www.steamerafreightcars.com/prototype/frtcars/1937aarpdfmain.html

If you note the column entitled "End", you will see notation of "W" or "Sq", with a couple of others thrown in. By looking at the build dates for these cars, you can see that the earliest cars have the "Sq" notation.  These cars had square corners where the ends and sides join. Later the design was improved and strengthened with a rounded corner, as on your models. The W refers to the internal corner components. In your 1937 era, all the 1937 AAR boxcars had square corners. Models of these cars are not as common as they once were, made initially by IMWX then Red Caboose. You will have to find them on the secondary market and watch to see if Intermountain, now owner of Red Caboose, produces cars with this detail.

The basic site, http://www.steamerafreightcars.com/ , has a ton of info on steam era freight cars.

Another factor you could consider for your fleet is the paint/lettering scheme. More often than not, railroads changed their schemes as time went on. The NYC car I think is unchanged since its 1942 build date, but the SEABOARD car has some added features.

If you want to get really down in the weeds with this stuff, check the re-weigh date, located below the reporting marks next to the LT WT. This indicates the location and date the car was last weighed, which was required periodically or if major repairs were performed. This is only the reweigh date and may or may not be when the car was last painted.

I hope you find this useful.

Steve Hoxie

Pensacola FL

Guidance

Dave, Eric and Steve - many thanks for your informative posts.

I haven't made a final decision yet (pending a thorough dig through the information links you sent me) but I strongly suspect these cars are going to be a 'no go'. All of my current box car stock is wood sheathed and there would be very little plausible opportunity for cars this new to find there way to the short line outback that is the C&A.

Regardless, the links are extremely interesting and will also provide me with guidelines in the future on other questions.

Thanks again guys

Rob Clark
Cornhill & Atherton RR

One thing to keep in mind Rob

One thing to keep in mind Rob C., is the interchange concept. If for example a load of widgets or other new machinery was purchased for an online industry from some other place in the country you could see some other roads brand new box car. When they put them into service they had to send them somewhere. I just would not have a lot of them. By the way the railroad that had more box cars than anyone, NYC, the railroad that had more of every other car type and second to NYC in box cars Pennsylvania. So if you had one or two new cars in their livery it would likely be very plausible.

Rob....

Other than a rivet counter, who would notice? I do understand, I complain every time I watch Porky's that there is a 1957 Thunderbird ina movie set in 1955....

if it looks and feels right, don't worry about it. If you are really bothered by it, they are easy to sell.

Stand-Ins

Rob,

What are your layout goals? A main goal for my Wheeling Freight Terminal was to operate regularly. I've met that goal with monthly sessions since late 2014. There are currently 91 freight cars on the layout, but not all are appropriate for my 1926 era. I am using a number of models I acquired and built years ago that would be a better fit for a late 1940s layout. I currently have 15 of these "out-of-era" freight cars on the layout and they are very important to the monthly operating sessions. Here's a blog post from May 2015 where you can spot a couple of post-1930 era freight cars in the photos.  

I am now at the point where new models coming off the workbench ar a good fit for 1926. When one is ready to use on the layout, one of those "newer" cars comes off. It has taken time, but I've been able to operate each month with a decent size fleet.

Set a few goals. If operating the layout is high on the list, then keep using those post-1937 cars so you can have a good session. As you develop your fleet, you can always push those newer cars out of service. It's a long term hobby.

Eric

steel side cars

There were quite a few cars that looked similar to that NYC in the late 30's, maybe not that specific car but close enough that running it would look fine. The Seaboard car looks too new only because of the paint scheme. The link below  is to a Harlem transfer site and if one scrolls down a bit they'll see 3 photos taken in 1936 that show plenty of steel side cars on site.....DaveB

http://members.trainweb.com/bedt/indloco/ht.html

Years ago I was avid when

Years ago I was avid when wither buying a decorated freight car or custom painting one that the build date was before 1957, which is the time I model. I also made sure that the box cars were correct for the era.

Now that I am a bit older, I can't see the cotton pickin' reporting marks unless I have magnifiers. Oh well.

Options

Rob and DaveB - The C&A will have a double ended staging track and interchange is very important to me to increase operating potential. So, given the information you have both supplied, the NYC car has some possibility of being there.

I think I will remove the main lettering from the Seaboard car and add something mythical (ink jet decal paper is in the post). The same thing can be done to the NYC car if I remain uncomfortable with it.

Eric - although I don't operate much at the moment, realistic operation is my ultimate goal. I consider it the 'prize' when the layout nears completion. Many thanks for the link to your operations blog - I found it most informative and the B&W photo in part 2 was just beautiful !

Montana and Bremner - your points are well made. I shouldn't be so 'precious' and I can change things in the fullness of time.

Thanks again everybody - I am physiologically reset and also have options for using these cars rather than selling or consigning to the shelf.

Rob Clark
Cornhill & Atherton RR

Maybe...

...trade them for something more likely to be seen on the layout in 1937 such as a PRR X29 Boxcar. Built from 1924 to 1934 and totaling 29000 the largest single fleet of boxcars at the time. No railroad set in your era should really be without one. I have seen pix of these in as far away places as Alaska and Mexico.

If you decide to keep either of these I would keep them pretty clean as they would not have had time to get dirty. Maybe the Management of the C&A decided to lash out and modernize a bit and bought 1 1937 AAR Boxcar! Maybe set up a picture with a photographer from the local rag and the Management in front of their brand new boxcar!  

There were several buyers of small fleets, The C&EI had 5.

Whatever you decide I am sure it will look good on your fabulous layout.