50' Standard Pennsylvania Box Car...

[goscrewyourselves]

I am on a build and decal kick at the moment, if you hadn't figured that out, and have started on one of my 50' Box Cars. Am doing it as a Pennsylvania Rail Road car so hope it works out better than soe of the other attempts I have made. Here is the start of it:

Started to weather it a little before I put the decals on and yep, the top of the "A" got left behind

 

[Boris]

Tony: OK, that is acceptable, because the PRR shop forces would occasionally do that. Looks Good so far.

 

[goscrewyourselves]

Boris,

Thanks and nice to know that a mess up wasn't really a mess up.

 

[goscrewyourselves]

A little more done:

 

[Olie]

I think it looks great. Proves it was man made. Plus, I'm kinda partial to the PRR anyway.

 

[goscrewyourselves]

Thanks Olie and your right ... it does look "man made"

 

[Boris]

Here is what I was talking about .

X32A

X32D

Hope this helps.

 

[goscrewyourselves]

Thanks Boris and yep, it does. A picture tells a thousand words

 

[bob]

Those are some nice looking cars. Being born in Pittsburgh, I'm a bit of a Pennsy fan myself. My first train ride was on a PRR commuter train.

They were one of the biggest railroads in the US, and if you're modeling common carrier standard gauge railroading in the 1900's up until the 1960's, your layout should probably have some PRR cars on it. There are, of course, some exceptions but PRR boxcars and hoppers were everywhere for the most part.

 

[tootnkumin]

Maybe the purpose of having the writing and logo reversed on the two similar box cars, was to make it easier to identify which they were, if in the darkness, or distance, the door arrangements weren't so easily detected.

 

[Boris]

Toot: Your suggestion is much too logical for the railroad industry to follow...

If you look at the photos of the PRR X32 variants, I believe the initial class was A 50' SINGLE DOOR box car. The next version was a double door with end door to facilitate loading / unloading of finished autos. They just added a second door to the left side of the center door. When they went from the Circle Keystone scheme to the Larger Shadow scheme, they had to reverse the logo to fit the remaining car side. When you compare steam era double doors to modern double doors, the newer cars more frequently have centered openings, where the steam era double doors were almost always offset to the left of the center door..

 

[Boris]

Being born in Pittsburgh, I'm a bit of a Pennsy fan myself. My first train ride was on a PRR commuter train.

The PRR had a way of growing on ya, eh?

 

[bob]

Maybe the purpose of having the writing and logo reversed on the two similar box cars, was to make it easier to identify which they were, if in the darkness, or distance, the door arrangements weren't so easily detected.

Possibly, but I'd say not likely. You don't go looking for "a double door boxcar", you go searching for PRR 29819 which is on your manifest and scheduled for deliver to Acme Safe and Dynamite Company. The specifics of the car don't matter much at all, with the possible exception of when you have to spot it at a warehouse door.