The Museum has completed another boxcar rehabilitation. Work included repair or replacement of deteriorated wood siding, relocating end tack boards to their original location, restoring tack boards to the doors, replacing the wood running boards on the roof, and general cleaning and painting. Original lettering configuration was applied with paint masks. A crew led by Richard W. conducted the research and performed the work, which took place during a several month interval. Other active participants included Dick H., Martin N., Dale C., and Dan C. Work was completed inside the Museum’s Conservation and Restoration Center.
Boxcars were the mainstay of yesterday’s freight railroads. They could be found hauling nearly everything: manufactured goods, automobiles, grain, lumber, and even aircraft parts. Today, most of these same functions are performed by shipping containers.
The Northern Pacific Railway boxcar NP 28417 was built in June 1944 by Pullman-Standard under the railway’s Authorization for Expenditure (“AFE”) 5079-43. The original design was for an all-steel car however WW II steel shortages resulted in a modified design that substituted wood for the car sides. The design was designation “single sheathed war emergency boxcar” to indicate the wood substitution.
NP 28417 retained its Northern Pacific initials and numbers until after the merger that created the Burlington Northern. In 1976 it was retired to work service and was renumbered BN 950289 (AFE 75-3076). In continued to serve the railway until circa 1983 when it was retired and sold to the Northwest Railway Museum for the sum of $200.
The Museum also owns NP 28129, another car from the same order. That car remained in revenue service until 1974 and was also purchased by the Museum circa 1983.
Check out the larger proportions of NP 28417 compared to NP 14794 built just 12 years earlier. The older car was rehabilitated last year.
