Canadian Pacific Woodchip Cars (x-40' Boxcars)

[cv_acr]

A pair of CPR 40' woodchip cars, rebuilt from old 40' boxcars. The one at left still needs hinge and latch details finished up on the doors, while the extended height car at right hasn't had the doors started yet.

The extended height car is an example of an 8' door PS-1 car rebuilt for the International of Maine division. Originally they kept their original numbers and were simply noted in equipment registers, but were later renumbered and thrown in with the rest of the 40' cars that were being converted in the late 1970s without the tall sides. These cars simply had the roofs torched away, leaving some of the roof ribs behind as cross braces. They converted a lot of 50' cars in the early '90s, but that's a little new for my early '80s timeframe.

Both these cars are Intermountain 40' PS-1 boxcars. 6' door on the left car, 8' on the right.

I've got one more of the 8' door extended height cars in progress, and I'm looking for good candidate models for more of the later quick and dirty jobs. The intermountain PS-1s are nice to work with, but International of Maine PS-1s would have been in the minority of the 6' door cars converted.

I'll be looking at using one of the scratchbuilt doors to make a master for a mold and cast copies in order to build up multiple cars quickly. With a casting for the door, the non-extended height cars will knock together in about 5-10 minutes.





Prototype example:


http://freight.railfan.ca/cprail/cp31403.jpg

[Ryan87]

Chris,

Nice looking cars! I'll definitely have to make a few of these for North of Superior service.
Were any '37 AAR (CCF) cars used on the non extended rebuilds?
The extended cars were all PS-1s right?

[cv_acr]

Ryan, thanks. I believe they're mostly 10'6" cars, and they all have 6' doors, from various original series and builders. Some kept their original doors instead of the new hinged chip doors. There's definately no rhyme or reason to it though. They seemed to throw whatever was available into the program. "This car is getting in rough shape? Send it to the woodchip program." Even the extended height cars appeared to get renumbered into the same series at that time and they made it into Northern ontario service as well. These cars were converted in the late 1970s through the early 1980s.

In the 1990s they did the same with 50' cars. These cars kept their original doors and just used cardboard and wood chip doors. (The same as grain doors)

The extended height cars were all built from 8' door International of Maine PS-1s in the 268801-269999 series and originally kept their numbers.

[Ryan87]

Thanks for the Info Chris!

So the ex. PS-1 extended height cars were used in Ontario? I read they were only used in the Maritimes...

[cv_acr]

Yep, they were used along with the other deroofed cars; I've seen photos and video that show that they were. At first they were used in Atlantic Canada but when they started converting more cars to use for northern Ontario in the late 70s they moved some of these out there as well.

[cv_acr]

BTW Ryan:

You should look into the DVD "Superior Railroadin" from Rail Innovations: http://www.railinnovations.com/main.htm

It has a nice pair of programs on CP's lines "north of Superior." There's some nice scenes including a fair number of the woodchip cars shown. Some of the extended height cars show up in cuts with the others.

What locations/lines are you modelling? Or just going for a general impression of the area?

[Ryan87]

BTW Ryan:
You should look into the DVD "Superior Railroadin" from Rail Innovations: http://www.railinnovations.com/main.htm
It has a nice pair of programs on CP's lines "north of Superior." There's some nice scenes including a fair number of the woodchip cars shown. Some of the extended height cars show up in cuts with the others.
What locations/lines are you modelling? Or just going for a general impression of the area?

Have the DVD, its been quite a while since I watched it, I'll have to dig it out.
My most recent Layout was the Lakehead Division between Kenora & Thunder Bay, had to relocate so now I'm contemplating doing the Heron Bay sub between Marathon & Schreiber, Maybe push it to Red Rock... (Mind you I'll have to stop playing around with all this Midwest stuff )

[cv_acr]

Northern Ontario railroading is kinda cool. Very different from southern Ontario which is much more connected to the US system and other railroads. Transcontinental trains and paper and logging traffic. Neat combination of a class 1 mainline through a literally backwoods area.

My intent is to model the Algoma Central in the 1980s, and the club I'm in is modelling CP in the Sudbury area in the 1970s.

[Ian MacMillan]

Very nice Chris. Reminds me of the cars that BAR used to have for hauling woodchips.

[cv_acr]

Yeah, pretty much the same concept, and probably originally the same service. The CP extended height cars were all International of Maine PS-1s and were originally for Atlantic Canada service. Eventually they migrated to Northern Ontario with the rest of the 40' boxcars that were having their roofs sliced apart with a blowtorch.

[Ryan87]

Northern Ontario railroading is kinda cool. Very different from southern Ontario which is much more connected to the US system and other railroads. Transcontinental trains and paper and logging traffic. Neat combination of a class 1 mainline through a literally backwoods area.
My intent is to model the Algoma Central in the 1980s, and the club I'm in is modelling CP in the Sudbury area in the 1970s.

That's exactly why I like it so much. ;D