Eastern Railroad Discussion > GATX Boxcars

Recently I've been seeing a lot of freshly painted GATX boxes, which I presume were purchased used and refurbished. I'd be interested in knowing the history behind these cars and the economics which make this kind of private boxcar ownership attractive.

Theres a good chance that some were repainted from old B&M, MEC, PanAm in Hollidaysburg, PA at Curry Rail.

Providence and Worcester used to lease some of them instead of owning their own, not sure if it will continue now that G &W bought the P & W

Ed Stewart
Jacksonville, FL

Within the last year Trains Mag had a good article on boxcars. Many thought they were dead; but they are not . Shippers love the big 60ft TBOX's, but with heavier commodities The 50ft FBOX and alike cars suffice. And the rebuilt GATX's old 70 ton cars? That must be sufficient for many shippers and receivers and maybe light-rail branches becasue they are very common here. Most haul paper products, and some still haul beer, In the southwest, alot of beer from Mexico (Corona, etc, which I like) comes in standard boxcars into the States. But 'drumpf' wants to stop that (It is NAFTA traffic) and that will cut the market for limes too. don't know where they come from, but I know none are grown in Delaware.

I noted a number of these on a Dayton District train earlier this week.  Possible right out of the paint shop.

I saw these two in a BNSF freight coming out of the Belt Railway's Clearing Yard a couple of weeks ago. 

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The GATX box cars are refurbished 1970s/80's IPD box cars.  Mostly from shortlines/regionals.   Lots of them go to mexico for loading.  also used for  canned foodstuffs in US, and at consignees that cant spot 60' box cars.

Made their way to Canada as well.
Trillium train near Port Robinson Ont. 

Mike Bannon
St Catharines, ON

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With updating and new trucks etc, you can begin a new depreciation cycle. That encourages rebuilding and re-use. Much cheaper than buying a new boxcar.

Posted from Android

Strange the reporting marks on those cars depicted in this thread, which I believe are McCloud River and Warwick, are for railroads long since abandoned. GATX must pay somebody something for the use of these reporting marks. I wonder how many abandoned railroad reporting marks they use.

BarstowRiff Wrote:
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> Strange the reporting marks on those cars depicted
> in this thread, which I believe are McCloud River
> and Warwick, are for railroads long since
> abandoned. GATX must pay somebody something for
> the use of these reporting marks. I wonder how
> many abandoned railroad reporting marks they use.
WRWK was bought by the Providence and Worcester RR , then from what I understand GATX bought some of those cars and leased them back after refurbishing them, I see WRWK coil cars ,Boxcars and autoracks coming through Jacksonville, Fl. from time to time, so I believe they are all in pool service now, but I might be wrong .

Ed Stewart
Jacksonville, FL

Lackawanna484 Wrote:
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> With updating and new trucks etc, you can begin a
> new depreciation cycle. That encourages rebuilding
> and re-use. Much cheaper than buying a new boxcar.
>
> Posted from Android

This is a good idea:  I work for an extremely large WestRock paper mill in West Point, Va. which is served by NS (former Southern), and their daily loading capacity is 31 boxcars of the standard type discussed here (NO high-cubes, however), and even more if they're really cranking the product out.  NS often has difficulty finding enough to satisfy this company's needs, but they do go over and above every time they can.  About 2/3 of all the cars arriving now are these GATX cars, but with a large variety of reporting marks.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/23/17 12:20 by rbx551985.