Hello all: I have a question. Has anyone ever seen a fishbelly boxcar with the fishbelly part also painted the color of the car? Particularly when the fishbellies are down the centerline of the underside, like the MTL cars? I've seen in on the PRR XL boxes, but the fishbelly is closer to the edge on them... Any thoughts would be appreciated.. Thanks!
If the fishbelly is on the centerline of the car, I think that is called a "truss beam" car. I always thought of it as a steam era car. I really do not know if the prototype painted it the same color as the car. For MT, I think it was a casting and was not painted, but it has been a long time since I bought a MT car of steam era vintage.
I don't know necessarily about paint colors but.... MicroTrains single-door single-sheath boxcars and double-sheath boxcars are models of USRA design. The United States Railroad Administration, which took over the railroads during World War One, adopted some standard designs for railroad cars to standardize for the war effort. Both these designs used a deep fishbelly CENTER SILL. For a RR by RR roster of USRA double-sheath 40' boxcars see Model Railroading magazine (not Model RailroadER), May 1988 p.34 For scale drawings of USRA single-sheathed boxcar, see Model Railroader December 1986 p.88 ----------------------- Santa Fe had an early series of boxcars built in 1906, CLASS BX-O, 37', 30 ton capy, double sheathed wood sides on top of an heavy steel fishbelly side underframe, series 26301-29249; 32343-35199. Looked just like a wooden boxcar body built on top of a riveted steel fishbelly flatcar...which would probably be a good way to model it. References below are to specialty Santa Fe books: Bx-O plan, elevation & section Santa Fe Boxcars 1869-1953 p.238 BX-O #27030 (series 27030-28529) bldrs photo 1905 Warbonnet 1Q99 p.33 #26491 end view Santa Fe Boxcars 1869-1953 p.78 #26989 Santa Fe Boxcars 1869-1953 p.19 #27030 bldr's photo Warbonnet 1Q 2000 p.24 #27670 Santa Fe Boxcars 1869-1953 p.80 #28011 in 1938 w steel ends Santa Fe Boxcars 1869-1953 p.80 photo #28791 Work Equipment Cars (of ATSF) p.142 BX-O #32189 in Canada ca 1918 Warbonnet 1Q99 p.33 #33099 Santa Fe Boxcars 1869-1953 p.78 elevation for 1911-1913 rebuild Santa Fe Boxcars 1869-1953 p.79 photo #190167 as power & ice car Santa Fe Modeler 2Q88 p.14 photo #190168 as rivet car Santa Fe Modeler 2Q88 p.16 ex BX-O as MOW Tool car 190421 in 1970 Warbonnet 1Q99 p.33 --------------------- Some of the BX-Os were rebuilt in 1930 and became CLASS BX-14 . Some of these remained into the 1950s in maintenance of way and company service, but of course only on the Santa Fe in non-interchange non-revenue service. 37' double-sheathed, wood, heavy fishbelly steel sidesills. 226032-229529; 232101-235593. 18 extant in 54 Reg. In work service as scale tool car, Work Equipment Cars p.106 In work service as wheel car, Work Equipment Cars p.117,118 In work service Work Equipment Cars p.142, 143, 195, 196, 222, 230, 232 In work service as bunk car, Work Equipment Cars p.200 In work service as sleeping car Work Equipment Cars p.203 Model photo Santa Fe Modeler 4Q89 p.2 converted to ice car Refrigerator Cars, Ice Bunker 1884-1979 p.248 BX-14 model from Westerfield kit Warbonnet 1Q99 p.32 as ice car IE-X #115199 1949 pix Santa Fe Boxcars 1869-1953 p.81 I cannot immediately find pix on the web that shows USRA underframe clearly on models, or photos of ATSF BX-O, BX-14. Sorry. I hope this thoroughly boxes you in on these boxcars.
Flash & Kenneth: Thank you for your responses. I'm actually modelling pre-USRA. I have several MTL double sheath wood 40' boxcars that I have modified with wood ends. The single door cars get truss rods. The door-and-a half cars will get truss beam (thanks for the term!) underframes - just wondering if I should paint the truss beam or not. Sounds like it might not show anyway. Thank's for your help..
Not sure how one would even find out. No color photos from that era. Consideing that you can barely tell that the underside of TTX flats are painted yellow because of the grime, I would guess if there were any color photos you wouldn't be able to tell. The material used then was more iron than steel and was far more rust resistant and I would guess that in an age before spray paint the undersides were not painted at all.
The different railroads painted cars much the same in that era. There were only a limited number of colors that they found inexpensive and durable. Black and box car red (also called mineral brown) were two of these and were the "standard" colors on most freight equipment. An example would be from the ATSF. From 1910 until 1931 they specified that Box, Auto box and Stock Cars all be painted as follows. Mineral Brown -- Sides, ends, roofs, doors; underframes and trucks on repainted cars. Black -- Underframes and tucks (new cars only); route card boards. Unpainted Wood -- Interior lining and flooring in box and auto cars, flooring in stock cars. White -- Lettering. So you can see that depending on if the car had been repainted or not, the fishbelly part could be either black or mineral brown.
Thank's Larry & Russell: good points and definitely more to think about... I appreciate all the information you guys have provided. Bill
