BN grain boxcars

I am looking for good detail photos of Burlington Northern grain boxcars, I would like to make a few for my new HO layout but I am struggling to find good photos.

Any help would be very much appreciated.

 

Did BN even own any "actual" grain boxcars? There was such a thing, but most RRs just used regular boxcars with cardboard grain doors nailed across the doors.

 

Do you mean the Boppers?

 

I am talking about the 40' boxcars that they used in grain service during the 1970's I would like to make a small fleet of them.

 

Matthew,
Most of BN's 40' boxcar fleet in grain service remained in predecessor paint schemes until the end of 40' boxcar use in '80-'81 or so. CB&Q, GN, NP, & SP&S. Not all but judging from photos and a foggy memory, I'd say probably about 2/3rds of them. Nothing special about them, just 40' cars with the majority of them built to some version of the AAR standard and mostly with 6' doors. Although some were painted BN green, by the mid 70's they were nearing the end of their service life, so they basically received just what was necessary to keep them running. In the early 70's during the big Russian grain sales, just about anything with wheels was pressed into service, stock cars with plywood nailed up inside, old wooden and steel refrigerator cars, etc.

Here's a link to an album with quite a few of the cars I speak of in the '76-'77 time frame. Just concentrate on the 40' cars with 6' doors.
http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/archiveThumbs.aspx?id=20006

And don't forget a few foreign road cars in the mix. You didn't mention a scale, but if you do I could direct you to some appropriate models.

Bob

 

Somewhere in my MANY boxes of photos, I have some photos I took of a bunch of BN 40' boxcars that were parked on the Prarie Line from Tenino to Wetico in the early 80s. These cars were kept around, stored in various places as the price of scrap was in the toilet at that time. These cars were mostly as mentioned in former predecesser paint schemes, but some were painted in BN green. I was just a kid at the time and didn't know much what I was looking at other than a CB&Q, GN, NP, or SP&S 40ft boxcar and so on, but maybe some of these photos would be what you are looking for.

Ryan

 

I pulled up a list of BN boxcars http://www.fobnr.org/bncarlist/bncarlist3.htm and there aren't any listed as grain boxcars but there were 4 groups that came from CB&Q that show as 50'6" cars and the doors show as 14'/grain. No pictures, but it does give the road numbers, which might help in your search.

 

Athearn made 40' cars w/ 2 small doors in the main door & called them grain boxcars. The BN predecessor RRs done were CBQ, GN (sky blue) & NP. Also they did them in ATSF, SOO & UP (brown & yellow paint). They are always being sold on eBay. And they are on the Athearn website:
http://www.athearn.com/Search/Default.aspx?SearchTerm=40'+Box+RTR+Grain&CatID=THRF

 

Interesting........... the Burlington cars from Athearn are 40' , #s 49471 and 49536. On the list I posted, it shows a group of 50' boxcars with grain doors with CB&Q numbers 49400 to 49799, which is the range the Athearn cars fit into. Guess that means they ARE grain boxcars, but anyone know which length is correct?

 

The Athearn cars are foobies. I believe they're either UP or ATSF prototypes painted up as Burlington. The 50' cars in question were a fairly modern rib side car with double plug doors. One door had small grain loading doors integrated into it like the Athearn car. Although its probable, I never recall seeing these cars in actual grain service. By the time they were built in the 60's, the large covered hoppers were coming onto the scene so these cars were usually just in general merchandise service.

Bob

 

Now that was very cool! Thanks for posting.

 

Thanks for all the info, looks like I have myself some research to do!

Are elevators like this still in operation?

Sent from my HTC Desire HD A9191

 

Matthew,
There are still some of these smaller elevators being used, but none that I know of have rail service, or I should say like the video portrays. There are larger complexes that have at their core the small elevators, but have been enlarged by several bins, silos, etc., to increase their storage ability. Railroads raised the switching rates quite a few years ago that made it unprofitable for these small elevators to have one or two cars switched out at a time. It's almost all unit train now.
But they are still served by truck or local farmers have bought them and use them for storage.

Bob