Can You Identify This Boxcar?

CNE1899 Jun 2, 2023

  1. CNE1899

    CNE1899 TrainBoard Member

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    I am trying to figure out what company owned this boxcar.
    Clues:
    1. The year is 1939.
    2. The length of the boxcar is 36 FT.
    3. The location is a sand plant in Pinewald, NJ.(Toms River area).
    4. Rails are CNJ.
    Boxcar.jpg
    Looks like the logo is diamond shaped.


    Thanks,
    Scott
     
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  2. Hardcoaler

    Hardcoaler TrainBoard Member

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    A mystery to me too, could be Erie. Here's a shot of an HO model. Would be nice to find a similar photo of the prototype. Building a model of a model invites inaccuracies.

    upload_2023-6-2_9-54-51.png
     
    Last edited: Jun 2, 2023
  3. CNE1899

    CNE1899 TrainBoard Member

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    If it is an Erie car, it might be a 36' Fowler car.
    This image is from Accurail.

    Scott
    1167.jpg
     
  4. CNE1899

    CNE1899 TrainBoard Member

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  5. Hardcoaler

    Hardcoaler TrainBoard Member

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    Oh man, that's great! I've been checking through my files without success.
     
  6. CNE1899

    CNE1899 TrainBoard Member

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    I am still not totally certain that it is an Erie boxcar. The logo does not look like it has a circle inside a diamond.
    Although the lettering seems to match.
     
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  7. GP30

    GP30 TrainBoard Member

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    It does look like it’s Erie, but I also think it looks longer than a 36’ car.

    Any chance it’s a 40 footer?


    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
     
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  8. Kurt Moose

    Kurt Moose TrainBoard Member

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    Now I want to see the whole pic, cause doesn't it look like they're loading grain into it?:cautious:

    That's an interesting looking building in itself, for modeling.

    Oh, just read #3 "loading sand in it."
     
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  9. Mike VE2TRV

    Mike VE2TRV TrainBoard Member

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    A bit of enhancement confirms it's Erie:

    Boxcar-enhanced.jpg

    Still blurred but better.
     
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  10. CNE1899

    CNE1899 TrainBoard Member

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    This still isn't the whole picture, but it is more. The plant is the New Jersey Pulverizing Co., in Pinewald, NJ. My mother worked as the dispatcher at this plant in the fifties.
    The first boxcar looks to be a 40' PRR, then the car in question, next are three CNJ 40' boxcars, after which are three Reading covered hoppers,
    then another unknown boxcar.
    I had shown these pictures before, looking to identify a tank car, which turned out to be a GATX Dry-Flow car(off the picture in the upper right corner).

    Scott
    Screenshot 2023-06-05 at 7.27.20 AM.png
     
    Last edited: Jun 5, 2023
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  11. fordy744

    fordy744 TrainBoard Member

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    I agree that it is ERIE.

    I too thought it was 40ft but comparing to the adjacent cars it is shorter. 50ft cars were not quite non existent in 1939 but certainly rare and not in such service.

    Given the relative density of sand a 36ft car would have been more efficient loading than a 40ft so supports that. The earlier picture of a 36ft ERIE car states it 80000lbs loading so would still be less than the typical 100000lbs of a 40ft car of the era.

    Older cars were bumped to less "clean" commodities newer and 36ft cars typically predate 40ft cars.

    Cool picture too! would make an interesting model.
     
  12. 308GTSi

    308GTSi TrainBoard Member

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    They're probably loading bags of graded sand / copper slag / ilmanite for sandblasting. This usually comes in 25kg (55lb) bags.
    They probably loaded it into various size boxcars hence the longer car near the shorter one.
    :)
     
  13. CNE1899

    CNE1899 TrainBoard Member

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    305GTSi,
    Pretty close, the NJPCo. mined sand, and produced sand products such as silica and quartz.
    Below are some clippings from the The Mineral Industry Of New Jersey state government bulletin from that period.

    Scott
    PulverizedSand.jpg
     
  14. 308GTSi

    308GTSi TrainBoard Member

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    Its good to see over 90 years ago they were taking measures against dust. We used to have a similar mine on a island just near here, everything came out by barge.
     
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  15. Many Trains

    Many Trains TrainBoard Member

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    Would the product have been shipped bagged in boxcars as 308GTSi mentioned?

    It's interesting to see the different types of industries and ways of shipping. I need to think outside of the box more for layout purposes - there are a lot more industries/commodities than the ones I typically think of.
     
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  16. CNE1899

    CNE1899 TrainBoard Member

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    Many,
    The product was shipped in bags as well as hoppers.
    In the picture, besides the 36 ft and 40 ft boxcars, there are RDG covered, converted 33' rib-sided 2-bay hoppers and a GATX 40' dry goods tank car.

    Scott
    Reading_HTjr_1919_03.png GATX_DryFlo_1940.png
     
    Last edited: Jun 22, 2023
  17. Many Trains

    Many Trains TrainBoard Member

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    Thanks for the info! This thread has been very interesting. Trying to identify the car was interesting by itself, but then the industry took me down the rabbit hole - wanting to know more about that and how it related to rail service, and even how it might be turned into a model railroad industry.
     
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  18. CNE1899

    CNE1899 TrainBoard Member

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  19. CNE1899

    CNE1899 TrainBoard Member

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    Looking at the boxcars in the pictures again, I noticed that there was a lot of sand on top of them.
    If the sand was being loaded by bags into the car, why so much sand on top?
    Well I did a Google Books search with "silica shipping".
    One of the articles I found was how silica was shipped in boxcars in bulk.
    This article is from 1922, and is at the Wedron Silica Co.

    Scott
    Screenshot 2023-06-25 at 8.42.08 PM.png

    Also found an interesting covered hopper. wood boxcar top over a 2-bay hopper.
    Screenshot 2023-06-25 at 8.48.04 PM.png
     
  20. Many Trains

    Many Trains TrainBoard Member

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    Very interesting! It sounds sort of like shipping grain in boxcars.
     
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