Northern Pacific 42290
Saginaw Texas, January 27, 2006
Without resorting to a trip into the way-back machine, it's tough in 2006 for one researching Northern Pacific 40' boxcars to actually be able to go out and make a field study of such a piece of equipment. It's probably been at least 20 years or more since a 40-foot boxcar lettered NP existed on the Burlington Northern, so if one wishes to create a model of such a car, photographs are about all one has to go on. But in Saginaw, Texas, a thousand miles from the nearest track formerly owned by Northern Pacific, one of the last surviving NP-painted 40' boxcars survives, its longevity aided by its use as a storage unit at one of the big grain elevators here. I took the car for granted the last 10 years I've lived here, but with the prodding of Matt Sugerman, finally took camera and tape measure to the car to do a survey of this once-common and quite utilitarian piece of railroad equipment.
Some history on the car: One of 1000 40-foot boxcars built for Northern Pacific by American Car & Foundry in 1941, NP 42290 was delivered in May 1941, originally numbered in the 16000-16999 series. These cars were in the second 1000-car order for steel 40 foot boxcars constructed following the 1937 AAR "standard" for steel boxcars, 42'2" long over striker plates, 9'11" high inside, and 14'7" tall. The car had a capacity of 3718 cubic feet, capable of hauling 100,000 lbs.of freight. In the standard of the day, the car featured 6' wide doors. The car was originally delivered in mineral red paint with the arched "Northern Pacific" road name left of the door, with a 3-foot diameter Monad herald to the right. After 1955, some cars received a larger, 4-foot herald, superceded in 1959 with the basic lettering scheme we see here: 8' Monad and 6'2" NP initials.
Beginning in the late 1950s, NP began rebuilding their older boxcar fleet. As one of the cars sent through the program at Brainerd, MN shops in 1964-65, the 42290 emerged wearing a new paint job and with trucks allowing 110,000 lbs. capacity. Among the visible changes to the car was the lowering of a high-mounted, centered tack board on the car door to the lower position to the right of the door, and, the biggest visible change, the addition of a 6 1/2" deep steel channel along the lower sill of the car, replacing the distinctive earlier "tabbed" side sill. This is one of the spotting features of a rebuilt Northern Pacific boxcar. The 42290 was painted in the then-current paint scheme for such cars, boxcar red with 8' wide monad and 6'2" tall NP initials, along with a "Route of the Vista-Dome North Coast Limited" slogan between the door and the Monad. Beginning in 1964, NP began renumbering rebuilt 40-foot boxcars into the 40000-series; sometime in 1968, this car was renumbered 42290, in the 42115-42989 series.
The last change for the 42290 came late in its career. The car was repainted at Laurel, Montana, in the summer of 1969. At this time, it received the Cascade Green colors that would become standard with the Burlington Northern merger the following year. Missing was any mention of the North Coast limited. It was likely the car lost its roofwalk at this time as well.
One can only wonder how and when this car ended up sitting on the ground at Saginaw, Texas. The 42290 never received a consolidated lube stencil, required on freights cars after 1974, and the last service stencil on the car dates from 1971. If the car was somehow damaged in a derailment sometime in that era, the damage didn't appear to be that bad, and even in the early 1970s, a good percentage of BN's grain traffic moved in boxcars. Perhaps it was sold intact and moved to this location. . .
Many thanks to Matt Herson for additional history on the rebuilding and renumbering of this car!
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BRACKET GRABS: The end grabs used this interesting arrangements of bracket: the one of the left appears to be the same bracket used on the side, but rotate 90 degrees. The one on the right is considerable deeper. |
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AIR HOSE BRACKET: A simple slab of sheet metal, reinforced with a steel strap, to which the air line is attached underneath using a U bolt. |
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DOOR CHANNELS: Both top and bottom door channels are simple "Z" channels |
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YOUNGSTOWN DOOR: The car still sports its original 6-7-6 Youngstown door, with Camel hardware. Detail shows spacing between corrugations on each panel. |
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SIDE SILL: NP replaced the side-sill tabs with a single channel of steel 6 1/2" deep welded to the side of the car. This is a chief spotting feature of the NP rebuilt boxcars. |
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MORE END DETAIL: Shown are the cast iron NP cut lever bracket, and the solid brake step, with pseudo-diamond plate indentations and drainage holes cut into it. The roofwalk of the car was wood. Shown also is the power hand-brake mechanism. |
Left-half of the "left" side of the car. Note that the second- and third-roof panels from the left have been replaced with diagonal-panel sections. The cars were delivered with Murphy raised panel roofs; by the 1960s, raised panel roofs were no longer being manufactured. The big letter "N" is 74" tall and 82" wide; the P is 77" wide. The harsh Texas sun has faded the once rich Cascade Green into an almost lime shade over the past decades. . .
Visible on the upper right corner of the car is the roof-mounted hand grab, added after the wooden roof walk was replaced. The monad herald measures 8'1" across; the inner circle is 4' across the outside of the black ring; the black border is 3 1'2" thick on the outer ring and 3" thick on the inner ring. Lettering is 12 1/2" in height. Visible under the new lettering and paint are the remnants of the older lettering, including the "Route of the Vista Dome North Coast Limited" under the "FEyD" grafitti.
Right side of the car. Note the additional hand grabs applied on the ends at the time the roof walk was removed. The car has a 4/5 Dreadnaught corner post end.
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Here's the "pre-merger" stacked dimensional data. Interesting that stencils for the numbers didn't match in size!
A view of the B-end of the car.