In 1957, FGX produced a line of insulated 40-foot plug-door boxcars, very like the PS1 Roco car. A photo of one appears in White's Great Yellow Fleet. The photo shows RBNX 81800. Which roads leased these cars and what reporting marks and numbers were applied?

-- Bernie Halloran (bfhalloran@msn.com), July 12, 2000

Answers

By the way... You all may want to know that there's an error in the caption to the photo of the ACL leased 40ft FGE insulated boxcar in Paul Faulks ACL COLOR GUIDE book. The caption states that the car was built in November 1966. This date was assumed from the line of figures below and to the right of the reporting marks, "AX 11 65". But, this is the reweigh, or service, date, indicating that the car was reweighed at Alexandria, Va., on Nov. 1966 per ICC rules, and is not a built date, which would read "NEW 11 66". The true build date is always to the right of the door and in this case is at the bottom of the panel containing the letters INSU of "Insulated". The build date is March 1963. This probably doesn't mean much to most of you, but if you are modeling a certain era or particular date, it means a lot more, since all freight cars on the layout should have reweigh dates within the ICC's mandated 4 year span between reweighs. This also tells us when the car in the photo was actually built.

-- Tom Underwood (tlunder@attglobal.net), July 13, 2000.