CN 598000-series boxcars

CN boxcars 598000-598299 were built 11-93 to 2-94 by Nova Scotia's Trenton Works, 6348 cu.ft., IL 60'9", IH 11', combination 6-foot plug door, 10-foot sliding door with total opening 16 feet for specialty forestry product service. These cars are l-o-o-o-n-g. Interestingly, lettered without the bilingual 'Canadien National' on either side! A second order in 1996 for 200 more, numbered CN 598300-598499 was apparently cancelled. CN 598180 is blissfully almost graffiti-free, stopped at Belleville on September 13, 1997 during the "Belleville Shuffle" - watch for an upcoming post on the block-swapping between CN train Nos 335 and 361 that took place here.

Rapido announced in September, 2023 that these cars would be produced in scale, posting a master class video of sorts, concerned that some modellers were getting confused by too many rather large CN boxcars. Rapido will also offer the 'website' scheme, as seen on CN 598140 at Belleville in November, 2022 (image courtesy Railstream, LLC):

Rapido's ad - priced at $64.95 each!

Meanwhile, my own kitbash at nearly zero cost, awaits decalling on my HO scale Hanley Spur layout:

It's worth noting that I didn't observe any cars from this series until I observed CN 598051 in July, 1997 more than three years after the cars were built. I ended up tracing that car to see its traffic pattern, until February 2001. These cars could be found operating in a pool of other CN and CNA, as well as BCOL cars as they were made available. Later-built, large-capacity cars make the CN 598xxx-series less desirable for forestry-product shippers today.

My observations of the CN 598xxx-series including date, car and CN train on, with any remarks. As was often the case, if more than one of the series was in one train, I'll only list the additional cars' last three numbers after 598xxx. This listing does not include every time I observed one of the series, just the times I noted the cars specifically:

• Jul 10/97 CN 598051 CN train No 395 (Montreal - Chicago) "60' DD BO"
• (Interestingly, I observed GTW 598051, a blue 50-foot car exactly one month later, on 335 loaded at Chambord, QC on Sep 4/97! Back to our subject...)
• Aug 17/97 CN 598267 on 335 (Garneau - Buffalo) "lumber BO" at Trenton Jct:

• Sep 13/97 CN 598180 on 335 (top photo)
• Sep 27/97 598288, 030, 124, 268 on 369 (Garneau - Toronto)"60' lumber box"
• Oct 4/97 598046, 021, 102 on 335
• Oct 5/97 598299 on 335
• Oct 26/97 598084 on 318 (Toronto - Montreal, empty)
• Nov 28/97 598035 on 395
• Nov 29/97 598284 on 335
• Jan 13/98 598039 on 395
• Jan 17/98 598284, 230, 278, 016, 201, 038, 241, 051 during the Ice Storm:

• Feb 14/98 598298 on 335 "NAR BO"(?)
• Feb 21/98 598255, 266 on 335
• Feb 24/98 598198 on 395
• Mar 8/98 598226 on 330
• Mar 31/98 598230, 017 on 330 (Buffalo - Montreal, empty)
• May 31/98 598185, 271 on 318
• Jun 12/98 598171 on 330
• Aug 16/98 598140, 077, 181, 284 
• Aug 20/98 598071, 049 on 335
• Sep 12/98 598020 on 364 (Toronto - Senneterre, empty) 
• Sep 12/98 598241, 210 on 367 (Garneau - Toronto)
• Sep 17/98 598103, 000, 011 
• Sep 29/98 598187 on 321 (St Antoine, QC - Toronto)
• Oct 16/98 598244
• Nov 9/98 598205 (Dest Erwin, TN), 247, 179 on 365
• Nov 30/98 598064 on 366 (Toronto - Senneterre, empty)
• Dec 29/98 598208 on 366
• Jan 2/99 598004, 098, 169 on 364
• Jan 30/99 598139 on 364 and 598219, 091, 198, 282 on 369
• Feb 12/99 598276 on 365
• Feb 25/99 598067, 005, 121 on 367
• Mar 2/99 598186 on 366
• Mar 20/99 598016, 097 on 318
• Mar 27/99 598069, 192, 047, 031 on 368 (Toronto - Garneau, empty)
• Apr 3/99 598139, 218 on 366
• Apr 5/99 598269 on 367
• Apr 24/99 598058, 115, 034, 170 on 368
• May 11/99 598038 on 321
• May 20/99 598120, 289 on 366
• Jun 12/99 598299 on 320 (Toronto - St Antoine, empty)
• Aug 2/99 598285, 088, 081 on 366
• Aug 27/99 598109 on 364
• Sep 4/99 598045, 264, 284, 184 on 369
• Sep 11/99 598206 on 366
• Sep 30/99 598215, 037, 181, 230, 047 to Senneterre
• Nov 12/99 598107, 031 on 368
• Nov 26/99 598255, 289, 149 on 365
• Jan 16/00 598171, 039, 078 on 365
• Aug 26/00 598210 on 321 
• Nov 1/00 598143 on 366
• Mar 10/01 598211, 265 on 364 and 598041 on 301 (Joffre - Toronto) 
• Mar 10/01 598000, 010, 022 on 321
• Mar 17/01 598210 on 309 (Joffre - Toronto)
• Aug 25/01 598055 on 363
• Aug 30/01 598226 on 363
• Apr 26/02 598054 on 366
• Jun 9/02 598181 on 363
• Sep 1/02 598120 on 363 and 598241 on 368
• Oct 21/02 598161 on 309
• Jan 16/03 598069
• Jul 30/05 598006 on 376 (Toronto - Riviere des Prairies, QC, empty)
• Jul 19/06 598298 on 376
• Jun 16/07 598126, 233 on 369
• Oct 4/08 598289 
• Oct 7/08 598011, 210 on 376
• Mar 12/10 598240 on 376
• Jul 17/10 598228 on 305 (Saint John, NB - Toronto)
• Nov 3/10 598265
• Apr 6/13 598082, 209 on 305
• Aug 24/13 598146 
• Mar 24/15 598112, 031
• Mar 6/16 598224 on 369
• May 7 /16 598197 with open door on 369 at Belleville (below). The cars have become increasingly graffiti'd since the halcyon tagless days of the last millennium!

• Aug 4/16 598285, 162 on 369 (below)

• Oct 14/16 598259 on 376 (below)

• Oct 15/16 598081 with dimensional data re-established on graffiti, 598237 belittled by its bigger-box brethren on 305 (below)

• Nov 25/16 598060 on 376
• Aug 11/17 598231, 055 on 369
• Jul 14/18 598267 on 376
• May 5/19 598009 on 369
• Oct 27/20 598161 open door, 221 on 376:

• Nov 3/21 598124, 125, 173 on 376 (below). Their lettering was fading fast, the graffiti was spreading, and not all that colourful, with 598124 proclaiming 'Anthony can't do it' while showing us a door is only not a door when it's a jar (your door is ajar!) and 598173 showing off some stencilled reporting marks. The rise of graffiti!

I suppose these cars will be reaching their AAR-mandated 40-year make that 50-year lifespan, or declared obsolete soon. Here's a recent sighting, CN 598038 on CN No 368 on October 7, 2023:

With so many observations, I expected I'd seen them all, but I really only caught 112 of the 300 cars, though I've seen 29 cars multiple times, some up to three times! I'll be keeping an expert eagle eye for existing examples enthusiastically! As rolling stock expert Ian Cranston has mentioned in the comments, only 129 of the 300 598xxx-series are still listed in the Official Railway Equipment Register.

Lots o' links:

• the expansive rrpicturearchives website has nearly three full screens' worth of photos of just about every car in the series (including a surprisingly nearly graffiti-free CN 598041 in 2011!) The plethora of photos speaks to the cars' longevity.

Running extra...

Another titan of the Canadian rail enthusiast scene has left us on December 2 -  Bytown Railway Society Branchline and Canadian Trackside Guide editor Earl Roberts. I had the pleasure of meeting Earl twice at OVAR presentations I made in Ottawa, most recently in June. at which I was proud to present my two most recent books to Earl as the lucky door-prize winner that night! Earl was also responsible for making my aunt and uncle in Manitoba bona fide railfans by getting them on to Branchline.

Unlike most onboard videos I watch of the Canadian, this one is less 'travel host poseur' and more 'enjoy the scenery'. Less time spent saying things like, "Let me show you this bathroom" or "Here's where we take our showers" or watching the video creator slowly sipping a Diet Coke oblivious to the obvious smartphone photography. This trip was actually a very rare departure of the Canadian with no Skyline on this train. According to my October post on buffer cars, this would have departed Toronto on February 26. Departing Jasper, Banff Park and Kokanee Park were deadheading at head-end, having been on the Skeena since January 3. Two other deadheads on the head-end and 8612 on the tail-end in addition to the two buffer Manor cars - a very interesting consist and it was good to capture it in this video! The videographer only showed the tail-end buffer car when backing into Vancouver station.