Model Railroading > 86 ft Box Cars

I was railfanning in Illinois and noticed two 86 foot auto parts box cars in a consist.  One box car was NS and the other was GT.  Prior to seeing this, I thought these cars were long gone.  Does anyone know what other road names are floating around out there on the rails?  There are only pictures of NS online that I can find.  What other road names have you spotted in the past few years?

Thanks!
-James Wright
 Omaha, NE

Saw an ICG one today.    GTW ones are still pretty common in MI still, but they are going away fast.    

CR (with NS markings), CSX, and CN are out there too.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/08/19 20:33 by Curt.

GTW and Chessie got 86' boxcars in late 1970s and I think CR, CSX and NS got orders in early 1980s... so those cars are still within their alloted service years.
Many of the earliest 86' boxcars from the mid 1960s are long gone...

  When I get back to my home state of Mi. I still see a lot of them in the Detroit area...


  Steve H...

Ford has a stamping plant in Chicago Heights, IL, on the UP (CHTT technically I think) that had dozens of them in the yard last time I was there, mostly UP. This thread I posted in 2015 has some pictures

https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?1,3909447,3909469#msg-3909469

We get a lot of these box cars through Decatur, IL. In addition to all the roads mentioned, I've seen some UP with CNW reporting marks, grey CN with IC reporting marks, and Southern RR floating around. The orange ICG ones are getting very few and far between. Still see a lot of the GTW around here.
  -Caleb

Last time I seen an 86' boxcar, it was an NS on the rear of a loaded military train, in Joseph City, Arizona, with two NS SD60 leading, headed to California; that was late last year. Other than that, they are getting rare on the Southern Transcon.

I'm a fan of the 86' auto parts box cars of the late 70's and early 80's.  I'd love to see an HQ version offered in HO.

 

From these posts and what I've seen, you re most likely to see these cars running to and from automotive manufacturing plants.  
Since the automakers are now largely concentrated in the central part of the country, you are unlikely to see these cars elsewhere.

FWIW, in the 1980's I would regularly see these cars through Waterloo, IA.  However, they weren't hauling auto parts.  Rather, they
were carloads of boxed cereal between the Kellogg's plant in Battle Creek, MI, and a distribution facility in Lincoln, NE.  

Nick Tharalson,
Marion, IA

Like Caleb said we see a lot of 86ft cars in Central Illinois along NS. The Detroit- Kansas City corridor is very heavy with auto parts and it also hosts the last roadrailer trains in the US

Erik

In the early 70's when the Meadowlands racetrack in New Jersey was about to open, a Santa Fe 86' high cube full of hay (or straw?) was spotted on the Erie Lackawanna team track in Rutherford.

Cajon Pass, CA August 2013.

~ Mr. MRL

---

There are still quite a few 86' boxcars out there in certain area. The Detroit area is still the best place to see them. NS runs long strings or solid trains(depending on where you are along the route) between Detroit in Kansas City to the Ford plant at Claycomo. I've also seen large numbers of the 86' boxcars moving to and from the Ford stamping plant in Buffalo, NY. I love seeing these cars, but they are troublesome to work with. Many are approaching their 50-year life and they are not being replaced. Whether new cars are built, the old cars get waivers, or the auto industry is forced to adopt the 60' car is yet to be seen. Recent tests with 60' cars were not promising. 

1: A rare DT&I car on CN 531 at Buffalo, NY May 2018. 
2: GTW on NS 122 at Moberly, MO January 2016
3: SOU on the same train at Moberly.

---

---

---

4&5 are CSX variants at Moberly, MO in 2014

---

---

I saw a Family Lines SCL/L&N car in Kansas City last August... Very occasionally here in Texas, most recently a few weeks ago. They're still kickin'

Here's one for you but not loaded with auto parts.
At the time, a local Southwest Kansas farmer who sold high-grade alfalfa to dairies in Oklahoma contacted the local Santa Fe agent in the 1970's and requisitioned some of these cars for shipments.  Worked fine with a forktruck inside the car and the John Deere forked tractor for loading the large bales. Shots were taken in late evening, consequently poor photos.

---

rrman6 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Here's one for you but not loaded with auto
> parts.
> At the time, a local Southwest Kansas farmer who
> sold high-grade alfalfa to dairies in Oklahoma
> contacted the local Santa Fe agent in the 1970's
> and requisitioned some of these cars for
> shipments.

See my post above about the Santa Fe hy-cube loaded with "hay (or straw)" for the new racetrack in New Jersey. Might have been high grade alfalfa from this guy -- after all, they were feeding thoroughbreds.

In my consulting work with the Museum of Science and Industry and their Great Train Story HO model railroad, we signed GATX as a sponsor. GATX suggested painting 86 ft as new models for the layout. We never did that, substituing another model. 86ft cars were said to be for a new cargo.....toilet tissue.

DH 

ntharalson Wrote:
> FWIW, in the 1980's I would regularly see these
> cars through Waterloo, IA.  However, they weren't
> hauling auto parts.  Rather, they
> were carloads of boxed cereal between the
> Kellogg's plant in Battle Creek, MI, and a
> distribution facility in Lincoln, NE.  

I guess when the cereal makers shifted from filling the cereal boxes to the top to only half full they could make the switch from 60' boxcars to 86' ones...