CV White Boxcars

Central Vermont's newsprint-service boxcars CV 50000-50099 included a few cars painted in a unique paint scheme. Built by Berwick Forge & Fabricating in the former American Car & Foundry plant in Berwick, PA in 1974, the last five 100-ton boxcars were painted with white sides and roof, green lettering, black ends and underframe. CN thought highly enough of these five unique cars to have them photographed for posterity, including them in the photo collection passed on to the Canada Science and Technology Museum.

Does this look like Vermont to you? It didn't to me. In fact, the photos are credited to Don Shiner of Berwick, PA, taken in August 1974. This is not a train - it's just the five cars posed for builder's photographs - notice the photogenic new ballast! A little retro research revealed that the cars are under the Berwick-Nescopeck bridge probably on the Erie-Lackawanna line along the Susquehanna River in Berwick, just east of the Berwick plant. The bridge no longer stands, having been replaced by a newer structure.

(CSTM photo collection CN005319, CN005317, CN005318, top to bottom)

The white paint scheme did not seem to weather the years and miles terribly well. Here's CV 50097 being switched in an undated photo, though the last shop date is stencilled as CV 8-84. (G. Burridge photo, purchased at train show in 1999):

Here's an undated online view of CV 50098:

I was able to catch road-weary CV 50019 and white CV 50098 running through Kingston on March 9, 2001 on CN train No 306, a prime purveyor of Toronto to New Brunswick-bound traffic at the time (since truncated to CN regional freight 406):

Paul Charland kindly shared his photo of CV 50098 at St Albans, VT in September, 1980:

Duane Hall photo via Marty Bernard of CV 50098 in May, 1984:

Jim Hediger included the white cars in his Paint Shop article in Model Railroader in the early 80s featuring brown, blue and white CV boxcars explaining, "Herald King also produces a special set of CV decals for a white car that has black ends and green lettering. I checked into this and found there were only five prototype cars painted in this manner. However, I just plain liked the scheme so I added it to my CV car project." 

The paint scheme was popular with modellers, even though it was applied to only these five prototype cars.

I'm sure this photographer was interested in capturing the gon in foreground, but lurking behind was CV 50097 perhaps with end damage, from an online auction site, captioned 1979:

CV 50095 in 1977 (online auction site photo):

Mike McNamara applied Herald King HO scale set B-151 to his boxcar, building two of them for his Northeast Kingdom Railroad.

CDS Lettering also produced dry transfers for the white cars, as their #226 in various scales.

Weaver Models produced a brown and white car numbered CV 50000, 50025, 50064 and 50099.

Kadee Micro-Trains produced CV 50098 in N scale:

The cars were also popular with trackside photographers. Here are some prototype view links:
CV 50095
CV 50097
CV 50098
CV 50098
CV 50098 BFF builder's decal
CV 50099 as well as this 1984 Bill Grandin photo of CV 50099 shared by Jim Parker:

The cars eventually received the CN 'website' paint scheme with the www.cn.ca and small CN logo replacing the large 'CV' but retaining Central Vermont reporting marks and lettering. This change started in the early 2000's, and many such CV 50000's can be found in online photos in 2003 and 2004. (This scheme was different from the non-website, small CV scheme applied to CV paper cars starting in 2002). Some cars survived with large CV's until 2011-2012, though the white cars seem to have been repainted about ten years ago. Here's CV 50095 in 2011. 

Here's how the remainder of this series of cars originally looked:

(CSTM photo collection CN005313)

I observed and noted many of the cars in this series, not just because of the unique white cars, but also because it was a relatively small, discrete car series. I often saw the cars on CN's Kingston Sub, on their way to Newcastle NB and other paper-loading locations. Here's CV 50058 stopped near Mi 179 Kingston Sub, while CN No 306 is in emergency on July 5, 2004. The cars' brake hoses, due to their cushion underframe configuration, seemed to often strike level crossing timbers resulting in loss of train air pressure:

CV 50000-series observations 1994-2005, showing car number, CN train car was on, date, remarks:
50097        May 24/95 WHITE
50097        Aug 2/97 WHITE
50072 306 5/98
50025 310 3/99
50051 310 3/99
50069 310 3/99
50010 303 3/99
50032 301 5/99
50030 301 5/99
50020 367 3/99
50033 306 8/99
50033 306 8/99
50042 306 8/99
50063 313 8/99
50074 313 8/99
50008 305 10/99
50039 306 11/99
50099 306 11/99 WHITE
50048 306 1/00 Dest. Newcastle NB
50030 311 3/00
50028 311 3/00
50000 306 3/00
50071        3/00
50004        3/00
50051 367 6/00
50036 367 6/00
50044 367 6/00
50042 367 6/00
50018 367 6/00
50070 365 8/00
50067 306 3/01
50098 306 3/01 WHITE photographed
50061 306 3/01
50072 306 4/01
50061 308 5/01
50007 306 6/01 to CFBC
50031 309 6/01
50009 309 6/01
50015 309 6/01
50002 365 8/01
50086 307 9/01
50039 309 10/01
50001 309 10/01
50080 309 10/01
50072 306 10/01
50041 307 3/02
50044 309 3/02
50001 366 4/02
50009 306 6/02
50017 309 9/02
50099 309 9/02 WHITE same train
50095 309 9/02 WHITE same train
50056 309 10/02
50076 305 1/02 www.cn.ca
50031 305 11/03
50050 305 11/03
50027 308 11/05

Running extra...

Trackside Treasure reader Chris de Vries reports that CV 50028 is currently in Brockville, ON for spotting at Wills Transfer by CP. Thanks, Chris!

***February 2015 update...Chris de Vries reports that CV 50014 is currently in Brockville, ON at the former Clarke warehouse - likely scrap paper for Caraustar. Thanks again, Chris!

Christmas brought a gift subscription for 2014 to The Bytown Railway Society's fine monthly newsletter Branchline. Thanks, David and Susan!

Lots-o-links for your holiday viewing pleasure: CNR 3254 with some spicy stack-talk and winsome whistling, a sweet selection of CN Rail Change Out unit photos, CN and CP auxiliaries co-operate, VIA No 1 departs Winnipeg 24 hours late, and some excellent eastern and western Canada photos by Waldron Young,