Box Cars and N's

Not sure how they racked 'em and stacked 'em? But I've heard of that story. Didn't hear the amount they could put on the box car, just that he had optimized the size of the N for the box car.

I love this pic of the N hauler;

Tyman

Hey Tyman...do you have any data on the pics?? Like when they were taken and where?? Obviously the shipping-yard one was taken at the Ford plant, but when?? The tractors are not 8-ns, but were they 9n's or 2ns? Got any more?? Thanks for puting them on this board...I've saved them to my screen-saver, along with all the other pix I've collected from my web-surfing. Quite an eclectic collection.

Most railroad boxcars of the 1940's and '50s were about 40 feet long, 10 feet wide and 10 feet high. There were also 50 foot cars used for automobiles. The drive-on triple deck auto rack cars used today did not exist then.

In either case you might be able to fit the 115" length of an 8N sideways which would allow a maximum of 7 in a 40 foot car or 9 in a 50 foot car, assuming a width of 65". Unless there was a way of stacking them on end which might allow 2 per row or the 14 you mentioned.

For autos the literature I have read mentioned an "Evans loader" which apparently was used to load the cars. They usually loaded through side doors as adding end doors made the car too stucturally weak.

Jon