40th Birthday Facelift

In driving by the east end of Englewood yard recently, I came across a rare sight: a 40 year-old boxcar that didn’t have graffiti on it. Granted, it’s just been repainted, but it still counts!

The last time I was through Palestine, Texas, I noticed that the UP car shops there was rehabbing  SP 86′  boxcars, so I’d surmise that that’s where this car received its fresh coat of paint. Note that the car has retained its SP reporting marks.

SP 616561 B-70-55 class boxcar in Houston, April 28, 2011. (Click image to see more detail)

SP 616561, a B-70-55 class boxcar, was built March, 1971 for auto part service, primarily from mid-west U.S. suppliers to west coast Ford and GM assembly plants. This was high priority traffic, so it’s safe to say that this car made numerous trips on the SP’s hottest freight trains, the APLAA and the Blue Streaks (BSMFF, MBSMF, etc.).

Here’s a view of what these cars looked like originally:

Here’s a shot of one of these cars in service:

Extra 7667 West, the MBSMF, blows by an eastbound manifest at Theba, AZ on 12/17/85. Note the 86' auto parts boxcar directly behind the power.

The above shot is from John Carr’s indispensable website, Carrtracks.com.  It’s a great resource for learning more about SP operations.