Re: C&Sn3 Kitbash of the UP built 27 foot boxcar (so far)

Posted by Jim Courtney on
URL: http://c-sng-discussion-forum.254.s1.nabble.com/C-Sn3-Kitbash-of-the-UP-built-27-foot-boxcar-Outfit-Car-Info-tp8100p8134.html

Well . . . this thread sure took a sharp but informative turn.

Thanks to Ken and Bob for educating me as to the origins of the early C&S outfit cars.

I found Bob Stears beautiful drawings of the CC 24 foot boxcar and converted "baggage car" in the Sept/Oct 2015 issue of The Gazette. (FWIW, Bob's drawings are drawn to 1/4 inch scale, but somehow the Gazette folks managed to print them under scaled).

I now understand my confusion of the origins of work box 070, as pictured at Crossons Tank:

http://digital.denverlibrary.org/cdm/singleitem/collection/p15330coll22/id/78391/rec/787



Not just the number sandwiched between two 27 foot cars, the car didn't look like a 26 foot Litchfield car, rather it had a lot of UP build features, hence my assumption that it was a 27 footer.

I'm not much up on Colorado Central freight car history, always oriented toward the South Park. The information in Bob's article taught me that the last batch of 24 foot boxcars acquired by the Central, showed up after the UP took control of the Clear Creek narrow gauge. This batch of 80 boxcars was built by the Omaha shops in 1880, hence all the UP building features.

http://digital.denverlibrary.org/cdm/singleitem/collection/p15330coll22/id/71842/rec/13



The converted 24 foot "baggage car" used on the UP's Sunset branch clearly shows the same spotting features as the later UP built 27 foot boxcars of the South Park, built in batches in 1882 and 1883. It has the UP-style arched end fascia, the peculiar corner irons with the squarish poling pocket on the side and the wide but very short end step on the right end of the car side.


http://digital.denverlibrary.org/cdm/singleitem/collection/p15330coll22/id/49554/rec/191



And the famous Jackson photo of the double headed freight on the High Bridge at the Loop has a 27 foot South Park car next to a 24 foot Central boxcar.  Other than the length, the two cars could be twins, given the near identical fittings. DSP&P 836 was from the first batch of 27 foot UP cars (summer of 1882 per Ron Rudnick). Even though built two years later than CC 1626, the cars have the same corner irons, door stops, lower door guides and the CC car even has the ass-backward brake staff/cylinder arrangement. They only differ in length and the type of trucks. (There's also a lot of chalk marks on both cars for Robert to decipher--I don't think it's all negative lint).

This info may be old hat to many of you, but it's "new" news to me.

Man . . . I wish I'd understood this a couple of years ago! I would have picked up several of The Leadville Shops Sn3 kits of the 24 footers, unfortunately now sold out.