An A-B-B-A set of Great Northern FT’s leads a train of newly constructed plywood-side boxcars in this World War II-era publicity photo. GNRHS COLLECTION: BLACKTAIL, MT; 1944
The Great Northern’s plywood boxcars
With steel needed for the war effort, these boxcars were given plywood sides/Staffan Ehnbom T
he solid train of new, 1944-built, brightly colored plywood-side boxcars pulled by an A-B-B-A set
of FT’s in orange and green and with a bright red plywood caboose sent out over the Great Northern system cer- tainly was eye catching. Imagine paint- ing the sides of plain boxcars orange in 1944 while the Second World War was still raging!
The scarcity of steel for peaceful pur- poses during the war certainly was the major reason for the plywood construc- tion. However, the 44025-44999 series of plywood-side cars also illustrated the relaxation of restrictions in the availability of steel. While the first 600 cars built in 1944 also had plywood construction in the doors and wood stringers in the underframe, the rest of the series received all-steel doors and steel stringers.
A factor that made the GN use wood construction longer than most roads is that the lumber came from Oregon and
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was shipped by the railroad rather than having to pay eastern roads for shipment of steel from the East. In 1941 the GN decided they needed another 1,000 “large cubic capacity box- cars” even though they were still receiv- ing the remainder of the 8,000 new 40- foot,
50-ton, tongue-in-groove double wood-sheath boxcars built during 1937 to 1942. These were purchased from commercial builders, which had appar- ently been the most favorable option at the time. But now, in 1941, it was found that “cars can be constructed at our own shops at less cost than if purchased from car builders.”
It would take until 1944 before the cars were built. Wartime shortages may have delayed the project. The use of plywood was advertised as repre- senting permanent construction and not intended to be exchanged for steel after hostilities ceased and steel be- came more readily available again. Still, there might have been thoughts
of rebuilding with steel later among GN management. It was also decided that 25 of the cars would be equipped for box express service. One of these was the one-of-a- kind aluminum boxcar No. 2500. The remaining 24 express boxcars received numbers 2501-2524 and were of ply- wood construction like the 975 freight boxcars, Nos. 44025-44999. The express boxcars received Ameri- can Steel Foundries A3 Ride Control trucks with Timken roller bearings. They were equipped with a steam train line, air signal line, double rotary cou- pler operating mechanisms, and AB-1- B air brakes.
The cars were built in the Great Northern shops in Waite Park at St. Cloud, Minnesota. But for the con- struction material used, they were all 1937 AAR standard size cars with a 10′-0″ interior height. The under- frames were fabricated at GN’s Superi- or, Wisconsin, shops and were welded,
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