C&O's 1934 ARA box car series 7000-7649

Chesapeake and Ohio Historical Magazine, May 2000 by VanderBosch, Tom

Ed. Note. For more information on the C&O's express boxcars (both the 220-series which were made from cars in this series, and the former Pullman troop sleepers) see Phil Shuster's excellent article in the April 1977 C&OHS Newsletter.

The American Railroad Association (ARA) built five test cars according to the then-new 1932 standard and C&O bought three of them. The cars were numbered 1900-1902 and later renumbered to 2800-2802. The C&O must have liked the cars: between June and August 1934, they had Pullman build 650 more. The cars had 4-4 dreadnaught ends, Hutchins radial roofs and Youngstown six-fr. doors. Cubic capacity was either 3311 cu. ft. with tongueand-groove flooring or 3287 cu. ft. with veneer flooring. The first 100 cars had Bettendorf type trucks; the rest had ASF trucks with a center elliptical spring. The cars had AB brake gear and a vertical staff brake wheel.

Cars 7041, 7267, 7298, 7346, 7399 and 7419 were eventually converted to passenger express car service with highspeed trucks, steam and air signal lines added. The 1969 diagram books indicates that Ajax brake gear, panel roofs and wrought steel wheels were being applied as the cars were shopped.

The cars were delivered in red oxide paint with standard C&O lettering; reporting marks and number to the left of the door and "CHESAPEAKE & OHIO" on three lines to the right of the door. Cars shopped or repainted after 1948 had the spelled out "CHESAPEAKE & OHIO" moved to the left above the reporting marks and the "C&O FoR PROGRESS" herald on the right.

Of the 650 cars built the Equipment Register shows 632 in January 1953, 601 in April 1963, five in October 1976 and finve in April 1980, almost 46 years after the cars were built.

Sunshine Models makes a urethane resin kit of the 1932 ARA boxcar. Kit number 21.25 is for the C&O. This is a good kit if you have never tried one of these limited production offerings. The hardest part of building a cast urethane kit is assembling the basic box of the sides and ends. Getting this right and square can be a pain. This kit simplifies this step by adding a sub-end. You first assemble the sides to the sub-end and then glue the end to the box you have formed. The important step becomes sanding the sides so that they are square and of the same length. I find that the Northwest Shortline True Sander is invaluable in this step. I then assembled the sides and the first sub-end with the subend on a flat surface and lining the sub-end with the top of the side. CA glue is applied from the inside. This assembly is then turned top down on the flat surface and the second sub-end glued in place with CA. Sanding or scoring gluing surfaces gives a stronger bond.

When you are satisfied that the body is square, the ends are added, followed by the roof. The kit provides either the Hutchins radial roof or a panel roof. I installed the roof first and then added the subroof. This is the reverse of the kit instructions, but I found the construction easier and the roof flat as it is supposed to be. Sand the peak of the roof for a flat surface to glue on the roofwalk. Next, fit the floor to the body. Locate and drill holes for attaching trucks and couplers. I drill and tap mine for 2-56 screws.

Add the amount of weight you desire before gluing the floor in place. If you are going to leave the doors open, be sure to place the weights close to the ends so they won't show through the open doors.

You can add as much or as little underbody detail as you want. I put it all on my car. The train line is .020" styrene rod. It lies on top of the cross ties and passes through crossbearers under the doors.

I used brass diesel lift rings to make the pipe anchors and glued them to the face of the crossbearer and on top of each crosstie. The end of the line fits into the Kadee air hose bracket included with the kit. The piping between the AB brake system parts is .010" styrene rod bent to shape. Brake rods are .012" brass connected to the kit-supplied brake levers. I used an end brake platform from my spares box.

The vertical brake staff is located 21-1/2" left of the car end centerline. The brake wheel is a scale nine inches above the roof walk. The kit retainer valve was used, with .010" styrene rod for the air line.

The corner grabs on the roof end walks were adjusted to match the holes in the end walks. The corner support is a piece of .012" brass glued to the corner and the end walk. I think this looks more realistic than using a lift ring, and is easy to do. The rest of the details followed the kit instructions; grabs, ladders, roof walk end supports, and bottom-operating coupler lift bar.

The car was washed with soap and water prior to painting. The instructions suggest several ways to get the correct color for the car. None of them are the old standard of "paint everything Boxcar Red." I painted my car with Floquil Santa Fe Mineral Brown. Other combinations suggested are 50/50 Box Car Red and Oxide Red, and 40/40/10/10 Boxcar Red, Tuscan Red, Roof Brown and Reefer White.