Athearn HO Scale Ready To Run 60' Berwick Hi-Cube Box Car - Western Pacific #3769Product Features
Fully assembled and ready for your layout
Separately applied wire grab irons and etched end platforms
Ready To Roll sideframes
Razor sharp painting and printing
Machined RP25 profile metal wheels
Product Description
Features / / * Fully assembled and ready for your layout / * Separately applied wire grab irons and etched end platforms / * Ready To Roll sideframes / * Razor sharp painting and printing / * Machined RP25 profile metal wheels / * McHenry scale knuckle spring couplers installed / / Specifications / / PROTOTYPE MANUFACTURER: Berwick / COUPLER STYLE: McHenry Scale Knuckle / ERA: 1970 - 2000 / Minimum Age Recommendation: 14 years / Is Assembly Required: No
Boxcars can carry most kinds of freight. Originally they were hand-loaded, but in more recent years mechanical assistance such as forklifts have been used to load and empty them faster. Their generalized design is still slower to load and unload than specialized designs of car, and this partially explains the decline in boxcar numbers since World War II. The other cause for this decline is the container. A container can be easily transshipped and is amenable to intermodal transportation, transportable by ships, trucks or trains, and can be delivered door-to-door. In many respects a container is a boxcar without the wheels and underframe.
Even loose loads such as coal, grain and ore can be carried in a boxcar, with boards over the side door openings, at later times grain transport used metal reinforced cardboard which was nailed over the door and could be punctured by a grain auger for unloading. This was more common in earlier days; it was susceptible to losing much loading during the journey, and damaged the boxcar. It was also impossible to mechanically load and unload. Grain can also be transported in boxcars designed specifically for that purpose; specialized equipment and procedures are required to load and unload the cars.
Livestock can be transported in a boxcar (which was standard practice in the U.S. until the mid-1880s), but there is insufficient ventilation in warm weather. Specially-built or converted stock cars are preferable. Insulated boxcars are used for certain types of perishable loads that do not require the precise temperature control provided by a refrigerator car. Circuses used boxcars to transport their workers, supplies, and animals to get from town to town.
Historically automobiles were carried in boxcars, but during the 1960s specially built autoracks took over; these carried more cars in the same space and were easier to load and unload. The automotive parts business, however, has always been a big user of the boxcar, and larger capacity "high cube" cars evolved in the 1960s to meet the auto parts industry's needs. Special boxcars carry newsprint paper and other damage-sensitive cargo.
While not holding the dominant position in the world of railborne freight that they had before World War II, the boxcar still exists and is used in great numbers around the world.
In recent years "hicube" — "high cubic capacity" — boxcars have become more common in the USA. These are higher than regular boxcars and can only run on routes with increased clearance (see loading gauge and structure gauge). The excess height section of the car end is often marked with a white band so as to be easily visible if wrongly assigned to a restricted gauge line.
Other HO Scale Western Pacific Box Cars: Trainline HO Scale 50ft Plug Door Box Car - Western Pacific
Other HO Scale Western Pacific Items: MTH HO Scale 4-8-4 GS-6 Locomotive - Western Pacific
Other HO Scale Box Cars: Intermountain Railway Company 40ft Box Car - Burlington Northern / Athearn 50ft Ice Reefer Box Car - Santa Fe (Scout) / Athearn HO Scale 50ft Combo Door Box Car - Union Pacific
