Champion Boxcars

For a brief time in 2003-2005, these interesting grey Champion boxcars were operating on CN's Kingston Sub. Nothing to do with Champion spark plugs! Champion Paper Co was later sold to International Paper. These Coe Rail Inc.cars with CRLE reporting marks were lettered for Champion International Corporation. Operating in the company of CN paper cars, photographed in US states MD, IN and on CN's Kingston Sub from Arvida, QC, they had been stencilled 'Return empty to Sheldon TX' and carried newsprint. Apparently, I wasn't able to get any photographs myself.

The cars were built in 4-71 as Pacific Car & Foundry 50'6" boxcars class B-100-27 SP 674900-675099, used initially for tin plate loading by Southern Pacific, and rebuilt in 1990. At that time they began their Champion lease - for newsprint loading, stencilled 'return empty to Sheldon, TX'.

CRLE 10351 through Kingston in this undated Tim Reid photo:

CRLE 10385 (top photo by Peter Mumby)
MVRY 10325 (photo below by Doug Stark taken June 25, 2005 at Galesburg, IL)

Around 2005, the cars were restencilled for MVRY (Mahoning Valley Railway) with the same 103xx-series road numbers. In 2015, the cars appeared with their Champion lettering painted out, rather crudely patched with BAEX reporting marks at least up to BAEX 1039.

As of 2023, the cars are in salt service, and as such are rusting....badly!

Lots o' links:

• CRLE 10331 on fallenflags website 
• CRLE 10365 
• Graffiti'd CRLE 10389
• PWRS has 'em in N scale
• Athearn has CRLE 10307, 10325 or 10374
• They spend time in California in the 1990's
• MVRY 10318 with its new reporting marks
• MVRY 10379 shows graffiti in 2006
• BAEX 1024 in May 2016

My Champion boxcar observations: date, car number and CN train seen on:

Sep 20/03 CRLE xxxxx on tailend of No 368

Nov 20/03 CRLE 10326 on headend of  No 321

****May 2018 UPDATE****
Still in service! BAEX 10223 made a westbound trip through Kingston aboard CN No 377, on May 15, 2018. The Champion logo and lettering can be seen roughly painted out, and note rust:

December 2019 UPDATE****Kris Rumbut kindly shared this photo of BAEX 1027 (that's the TRAINS number!) about to be cut up at AGM Resources in Gary, IN:

Running extra...

These Champion boxcars are exactly the type of limited-time-only observation that should (have) been documented as it happened. Like a budgie flying with a flock of sparrows. When will we learn to document the seemingly mundane? Fortunately someone did, and I was glad to discover that Peter Mumby had done just that! Peter often contributes to the excellent White River Division blog in Trackside Treasure's sidebar. I'm paying a lot more attention to the WRD blog now that I'm modelling a New England prototype!

Did some seemingly mundane photographic preservation for posterity today from five stories up. BN 461535 and 447969, both still bearing the large logo!

On this week's episode of TLC Railfan Sisters, we see a Norfolk and Southern ex-CBQ, GN, BN, CNW car at Elizabeth City, North Carolina, part of a station restaurant: