I seem to recall that they had removable plugs and flap valves in the fuel fillers and lines to keep gasoline from leaking, and that the cooling systems were sealed. As for the batteries, they may have been the early sealed cells.

There was attention paid to the design and things done during manufacturing, that allowed the cars to move nose-down. They actually hung on clips (part of the frame) that engaged with mating clips on the door/ramp part of the railcar.

Howard P.
Datsun, NY

The really scary thought is that we actually bought Chevy Vegas............:)

Not only were boxcars used for 'loading anything that would fit through the door' but also stock cars saw some unusual ladings. Drums of oil and gasoline were often shipped in stock cars, and they were used in South Jersey (if not elsewhere) to get baskets and bins of fresh tomatoes from the farms to Campbell's Soup in Camden in season. Of course, they got a good cleaning and disinfecting before going into tomato service-

Small World: In the April/May i2011 ssue of "Reminisce" magazine there is a couple of photos showing Model T Fords being loaded into wooden boxcars (NC&StL and OR&N). The cars are shown sans bodies and the caption reads that the bodies were stacked piggyback-style in other boxcars...the sub-assemblies bolted together upon arrival. The location is identified as Sonora, California.
Another photo shows a complete Model T phaeton "stacked" one on top of the other...the wheels of the top car standing on a frame attached to the car below. The article says they were shipped that way on the train and then driven to the dealership!!!
Side Note: The magazine subscription was a gift to me, it is aimed at Seniors who long for the "good old days"...(and railfans who think it is still 1925). I would never subscribe to it myself but it is interesting to page through. Maybe your local library carries it. Check it out!!!
T7

Or the elements themselves. The East Broad Top carried water in boxcars, apparently in bulk by sealing up the car, not in bottles.

Some EBT boxcars carried clay loaded through roof hatches like covered hoppers.

[copy of a post I made on another Group in 2009.]
The Port Richmond (Pa.) Reading Company booklet also shows a box car dumper for grain. The photo doesn't show the whole boxcar, though. Recently I had on Tyburn Railroad a more modern example of what must have used that dumper. Mid West Car MWCX 100074, formerly Union Pacific, is a 50 foot long end dump boxcar! One end swings from overhead hinges to release the contents when the car is tilted towards that end. This one has modern plug doors so that heavy paper inner grain doors aren't needed to prevent the product from getting caught in the doorways. It also has a removable roof so it can be loaded from chutes. Right now, it is hauling scrap metal, and the roof has been left behind.

The Secret Life of Boxcars?

The practice of loading anthracite coal in box cars dates back to at least the 1870's on the Reading Railroad, and probably on the other anthracite roads as well. While one reason was reducing theft, the biggest reason for it was equipment utilization. The Reading and other eastern carriers received lots of box car loads of grain from mid-western railroads. Rather than send these box cars back west empty, they were instead loaded with coal. Sometimes the box cars were loaded at the collieries, but also they were sent to coal transfer and storage facilities, which were supplied with coal from the mines via hopper cars, gons, or 4 wheel "jimmies". The Reading had several transfer facilities on its system, as probably did other anthracite roads. Other coal transfer facilities, to name just a couple, were located on the NYC at Lyons, NY and on the PRR at Lewistown. There's a great picture on page 123 of the PRRT&HS' book on Lewistown showing a coal gon on the upper level unloading trestle and a string of boxcars on the lower level loading track.

-- Rick Bates
RCT&HS Archivist

Even if they're gone, It wouldn't be that hard to take a TTX flat car and make a new one, given the funds.

These, as an example?

http://www.exactrail.com/vert-a-pac-automobile-car-scl

Nice models, by the way...if you aren't already familiar with them.

Could you find enough intact Vega-s to even put a few of those POS cars into the racks?

Howard P.
Cosworth, CT

They may have spent more money engineering the Chevy Vega to be shipped on it's nose, then they ever saved shipping them that way.

Sealed batteries, anti siphon fuel and oil system, etc.

-Hudson

I have seen complaints to the Minnesota Railroad and Warehouse Commission that the railroads would not supply enough stockcars for firewood service.

-Hudson

I was quite pleased to find this video which shows one version of an anthracite boxcar loader in action!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J_zuN2EWtvk&sns=fb

Rob

On the narrow gauge RGS in Colorado they shipped ore in 30 ft wood boxcars in burlap bags centered over the trucks because the frame was wood and that was all they could carry. The gold ore was also locked in the boxcar for theft and so the ore would not get wet and freeze and not be unloadable. In the winter just outside Durango was a coal mine that supplied coal for narrow gauge steam operations and the coal was moved during snow storm in boxcars to keep it dry and not freeze making it unloadable. The mills and mines all had covered loading facilities. hocarsandtrains. James