Surviving 36ft Boxcars in the 50s

[sailormatlac]

Sorry sir but I don't know off hand that much about these Reading freight cars other than the 36 footers were rebuilt with steel sides and ends and were on the system for a while.

No problem, your hint was more than enough to be productive! After a quick search on Reading Modeler's website, I found out useful information.

In particular, XMp class (<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://readingmodeler.com/images/rollingstock/boxcar/XMp.pdf">http://readingmodeler.com/images/rollin ... ar/XMp.pdf</a><!-- m -->) which survived quite a long time and was upgraded with Ajax brakewheel, steel roof and doors. They had fishbelly underframes...

This a a very neat prototype to replicate: <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://readingmodeler.com/images/rollingstock/boxcar/photo/rdgxmp12573.jpg">http://readingmodeler.com/images/rollin ... p12573.jpg</a><!-- m -->

XMr survived until the very late 1940s, but by the early 1950s, they were virtually extinct, except for a handful of oddballs.

Once again, thanks for the lead.

It seems the only credible 36ft boxcars that would have been in sufficient number to be rare but still in interchange are the SU class, XMp class and various ventilated cars from the South Eastern states (ACL, Seaboard, etc.). Not as much as I thought, but all of them are extremely interesting prototypes in their own right.

Best regards,

Matt