Eastern Railroad Discussion > Interesting NS 86' Auto Parts Boxcar

NS 489205 obviously is an ex GTW car. I understand that CR got a bunch from GTW. Was this car reletterd from the CR group?

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I have seen these with NS markings for a few years now. I've never seen them with CR markings.
When did NS acquire these ex-GTW cars?

NS got a bunch of ex-GTW (including some nee-DTS) hi-cubes in 1995. At the same time, they also got some ex-BN (including both nee-CB&Q and nee-SLSF) hi-cubes and CSXT cars.

In 1993, NS had gotten a lot of hi-cubes from CSX, including some that they then had rebuilt from two openings per side to one.

Conrail was a different story, and its secondhand hi-cubes had nothing to do with these. Didn't see them? You probably see them a lot, but they were repainted to CR colors fairly quickly. Check the upper right corner of the car side; the previous number often appears there. Or the class symbol in the lower right area of the side...if the cars carry class BW83 or BW84, they came from GTW (BT is ex-ATSF, BE is ex-EL, and there are lots of others that I can't remember). The "83" cars have single openings in the center of the sides; the "84" cars have two openings per side.

It's not too early to get your "parting shots" of these 86-foot cars, on any railroad...some are nearly 40 years old, and none are younger than 25 or so.

CShaveRR wrote:

> NS got a bunch of ex-GTW (including some nee-DTS) hi-cubes in
> 1995. At the same time, they also got some ex-BN (including
> both nee-CB&Q and nee-SLSF) hi-cubes and CSXT cars.
>
> In 1993, NS had gotten a lot of hi-cubes from CSX, including
> some that they then had rebuilt from two openings per side to
> one.
>
> Conrail was a different story, and its secondhand hi-cubes
> had nothing to do with these. Didn't see them? You probably
> see them a lot, but they were repainted to CR colors fairly
> quickly. Check the upper right corner of the car side; the
> previous number often appears there. Or the class symbol in
> the lower right area of the side...if the cars carry class BW83
> or BW84, they came from GTW (BT is ex-ATSF, BE is ex-EL, and
> there are lots of others that I can't remember). The "83" cars
> have single openings in the center of the sides; the "84" cars
> have two openings per side.
>
> It's not too early to get your "parting shots" of these
> 86-foot cars, on any railroad...some are nearly 40 years old,
> and none are younger than 25 or so.
>
> [%sig%]

Thanks for the clarification.