Eastern Railroad Discussion > CSX Big Blue Box Cars

Can anyone tell me the story behind
CSX, Big Blue Box Cars?

Thanks,

Eddie D.

i think it's pretty self-explanitory

At least some of them were built at Greenbrier's Trenton Works plant here in Nova Scotia. I remember seeing about 30 of them headed west on a CN freight a couple years ago, maybe a year after the CR split. I remember laughing my hole off about the old CR nickname emblazoned on the sides of them.

Otherwise, they're just hi cube boxcars for paper service that Greenbrier also built for CN, NOKL, CDAC, CRLE, and maybe others from other plants.

Mark

I remember seeing these long before the Conrail split. I don't really see to many of them now but they are still around. I have noticed there is a group of these cars that are now lettered NOKL but still have the BIG BLUE scheme on the side.

I caught a CSX northbound around Cartersville, GA last week on my way home from Atlanta. The train had several cuts of the cars, probably headed to the Bowater Plant in Calhoun, TN. My guess is that folks around a major paper plant or receiver still see these cars on a regular basis!

The first Big Blue cars were, in fact, introduced at least a few years before the CR merger, though another batch may well have been built later as CNMark says. I remember thinking about the Conrail reference when they first appeared, though as far as I can tell, the only people who called Conrail "Big Blue" were railfans. Within corporate circles, "Big Blue" has traditionally referred to IBM.

They are big and they are blue. See them all the time on the NS Harrisburg Line.