Per Diem boxcars

BoxcabE50 Aug 1, 2021

  1. BoxcabE50

    BoxcabE50 HOn30 & N Scales Staff Member TrainBoard Supporter

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    Is there any on-line resource which lists these boxcars? Builder, dates, original car owners, number of cars?
     
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  2. Kurt Moose

    Kurt Moose TrainBoard Member

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    Used to love seeing all the different names, colors, and such on all those back in the 80's and 90's. Micro Trains did a whole series of them in both N and Z scale, some names I never even heard off! May find some info on they're site?
     
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  3. digimar52

    digimar52 TrainBoard Member

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  4. Dave1905

    Dave1905 TrainBoard Member

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    This is not trying to be pedantic, but it will help in your searches if you look for the specific thing, its "incentive per diem" boxcars or "IPD" boxcars. Virtually all boxcars are "per diem" boxcars. Incentive per diem was a specific program in the 1980's to increase the boxcar supply.

    The interesting thing is that by the time the IPD boxcars came around, they really weren't on "per diem" (per day) they were actually on "car hire" which was an hourly rate
     
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  5. nscalestation

    nscalestation TrainBoard Supporter

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  6. BoxcabE50

    BoxcabE50 HOn30 & N Scales Staff Member TrainBoard Supporter

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    I was thinking back even earlier, to when we were first building an order of RailBox cars. In my case that was no later than 1974.
     
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  7. mmi16

    mmi16 TrainBoard Member

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    Incentive Per Diem and the cars that were built on account of it was all a 'Finance' play rather than a real railroad initiative.

    A number of the IPD car owner roads did not own enough trackage to hold the cars they owned.
     
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  8. BoxcabE50

    BoxcabE50 HOn30 & N Scales Staff Member TrainBoard Supporter

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    In the first half of the 1970's there was an actual boxcar shortage. But after RailBox (TTX) showed success, everyone else smelled a fast dollar and piled into it. The market was quickly flooded. Reminds me of how the Beanie Babies fad was ruined.
     
  9. Hardcoaler

    Hardcoaler TrainBoard Member

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    Wasn't there something about existing regulations that required most empties to be returned to their owning roads (or to specific points)? The "per diem" cars like RailBox were "Next Load, Any Road" so their utilization was better. Too, they were designed to appeal to many shippers, modern 50' cars in an era that still had worn out 40'ers in service. It was a cool time. Snazzy new cars in attractive paint schemes and without boneheads with spray cans to mess them up.
     
  10. Hytec

    Hytec TrainBoard Member

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    There was a small grainery in Hoosick, NY (on the B&M Fitchburg Div.) in the late 1940's that would receive a NYC box car monthly. As I remember, the car had a temporary tag that read, "When empty, return to NYC, Rotterdam Jct., NY". I, and a few of my buddies helped unload the car within the first 24 hours so the grainery owner wouldn't have to pay demurrage charges.

    These were the "good old days" when railroads still delivered LCL cars to small towns. For instance, B&M Peterborough Division delivered Sears Roebuck Mail Order Kit Homes to Peterborough, NH until WWII.
     
  11. Hardcoaler

    Hardcoaler TrainBoard Member

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    Demurrage charge calculations always made my head spin during my career, with their debits and credits, monthly summations and often a difference between our numbers and the railroad's numbers. Throw in privately-owned tank cars and it was always a mess. This has gotten easier with all being done on-line these days, including car ordering.

    Thinking of boxcars, things are in such a sorry state today with the focus on intermodal. It's no secret that the railroads are fielding far fewer boxcars today and finding good clean cars can be tough. I was blessed that SOU (and later NS) served a plant that I worked in in the '80s. They always had excellent boxcars in good repair, and it earned them our tonnage.
     
  12. southernnscale

    southernnscale TrainBoard Supporter

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    I started collecting the Per Diem Set series! I have found and bought all 10 have 8 of them in hand and waiting for the rest to arrive I have gotten! these are a nice set of 12 cars still missing the 510-00-400 car the last one I need! these are leased car to small rail roads! These are the Z scale cars! I like these because there all 50ft box cars!

    IMG_4030.png
     
    Last edited: Jan 28, 2024

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