CN's Re-Doored Railboxes

In 1985, CN acquired ex-Railbox Pullman-Standard 50-foot, 5277 cu.ft., 100-ton boxcars with 10-foot single sliding doors (RBOX 40750-41399) built in 1980. While still in Railbox paint, CN rebuilt them in 1993-94 with 12-foot doors, door stoppers and vents, renumbered CNA 412250-412574.  (Though some received CN 419000-series reporting marks prior to re-dooring.) CNA 412395 was placarded at Belleville, September 4, 1999 (top photo). I used this photo for my HO scale conversion of CNA 412390:

Some re-doored CNA Railbox observations including date, car and CN train on:

Nov 11/99 CNA 412488 on No 320
Mar 27/02 CNA 412441 on No 309
April 27/02 CNA 412483 on No 364
Sep 26/05 CNA 412637 on No 376
Oct 1/05 CNA 412260-412283 on No 309
Feb 22/09 CNA 412355 on No 308
May 2/09 CNA 412355

Interestingly, CNA 412283 is still running around in this patched scheme. It was eastbound on CN No 376 on March 6, 2016: 

Chad Young posted this photo to Facebook, showing CNA 412436 in Deshler, Ohio in late 2010:

Michael Schwiebert posted this photo to Facebook, showing CNA 412434 in Ohio back in April, 1994:

Nearly the last one in the class...video capture of CNA 412562 on July 13, 2018 on CN No 377 at Kingston. Duide, where's my Railbox? Note logo fading:

Good news! CNA 412367 is still re-doored and still running. On CN No 377 September 7, 2019:

And it's still really running on September 29, 2023 - what looks like the other side, taken from above near Kingston's VIA station on CN No 372 (below). I noticed it in a video taken in Quebec in December, showing the above side. Will it be the last re-doored Mailbox in service?

December 2019 Update: CNA 412345 through Belleville, ON on the 2nd, bilaterally-graffiti'd:

April 2020 update: CNA 412557 in this video:

March 2021 Update: CNA 412375 soldiers on (image courtesy Railstream, LLC):

March 2026 update: Worse-for-wear CNA 412559 on CN No 368 (image courtesy Railstream, LLC):

Lots o' links:

• CNA 412258 with unusual brown paint behind reporting marks.
• Peter Mumby's photo of CNA 412450 in this post
• Conversion thread with model photo (scroll) of CNA 412375.
• Athearn produced a former RBOX CN 419311 before re-dooring:

Running extra...

'Twas two weeks before Christmas and all down the line, Legault Metal gons were hauling scrap from Senneterre on 369. This rider was situated all snug on 651, with a cup of joe and banana-chocolate muffin, awaiting the sun....

Once in the trainshed, the train stopped with a jerk - so I disembarked with the others and got right to work. The scaffolding was hung all over Union Station with care, in hopes that renovation soon would be there. 

P42's on each end, in Business Class drinks flowed, we got the heck out of Toronto, loud whistles at every road. But I heard myself exclaim, as this post scrolls out of sight, happy couplers to all, I'll never switch, so good night!

Credit graphics guru and fellow modeller Randy O'Brien with this appreciated antlered awesomeness (above). Watch for Trackside Treasure's annual Christmas post, coming soon. I know, so's Christmas!

Two 1-hour Projects - Gon Loads and Cement Car Weathering

I attract Tyco bridges like a hamburger attracts toppings. I picked up so many at train shows that they are piling up at my Dominion Bridge facility on my HO Vancouver Wharves layout. This is not a problem. It's an opportunity! Gondola car drop-in loads! Plug in the Dremel, cut off some ends, glue to a plastic base and wait for the glue to set up.

This was a one-hour project for a recent weekend afternoon. The finished products are a Roundhouse gon load (longer one) and an Athearn gon load (shorter one).

Instead of moving on to my next one-hour project, I got the camera out. Spotting the loaded cars behind Dominion Bridge, I placed the camera to get some angles that are normally unattainable from the aisle. I used my Nikon in-camera 'toy camera' setting to give most of the photos a Jack Delano look. The switcher arrives to lift the two new loads:

The loaded gons are on the run-around track with Vancouver Iron & Engineering Works in the background:

 That's Fairbanks-Morse in the background at right:

Further distracted and intrigued by the shots I was getting, my imagination and camera wandered over to the Alberta Wheat Pool terminal elevator where Pete Bodnarchuk is hard at work:

 Still hard at work, with the wheat-shear logo prominent:

 Other end of the elevator tracks:

Will I ever get to that second project? Two Railgons have gone to Coast Steel Fabricators and Enzio Russo is walking over to check them out:

 The overhead crane frames the scene as that car in the distance reminds me...

 I use real modelling scrap for my scrap. I dump it out. I pour it in:

Finally, I got around to weathering the New York Central covered hopper at Permacon Concrete. Joe MacGregor and Pete Finnegan can hardly believe it. I actually finished the other one-hour project. My attention span is sufficiently long only to weather one side. The other is...pristine.

CPR 2864 is periodically hauled out of storage in the engine house. CPR can also stand for Candidate for Possible Restoration! This Monogram NYC Niagara kit makes an OK stand-in for a Royal Hudson.

Running extra...

Upcoming Christmas and other TV specials for your viewing pleasure:

• December 14 Jolene! Pentatonix on NBC.
• December 16 Food! Lidia Celebrates America's Veterans on PBS.
• December 19 Volume! Christmas with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir on PBS.
• December 20 Cable Cars! Tony Bennett's 90th on NBC.
• December 27 Eagles! The Kennedy Centre Honors on CBS.

That reminds me - time to get to work on Trackside Treasure's annual Christmas post. All I need is an idea. And a concept. And a Christmas carol to parody. And season to taste.

This year I might pattern it after David Letterman's Top Ten Least Popular Christmas Specials. Number Six: Martha Stewart Makes a Bunch of Cheap Crap Out of Tinsel.

Black Friday in Belleville, November 2016

Black Friday as a 'holiday tradition' is migrating north to Canada. To cash in on sales, Canadian retailers are adopting the post-US Thanksgiving holiday retail extravaganza. Regardless, practising some retail therapy in the family, I found myself at the mall on Black Friday. More specifically, Kingston Transit's new Cataraqui Centre transfer point. Not-really-Express-bus KT 1259 was at the transfer point (top photo) while brand new NOVA Kingston Express 1684 arrives from Gardiners Road (below). Speaking of road, it was time for it to be hit. So we hit the road for Belleville.

Belleville yard is a wasteland. Formerly the site of the welded-rail plant and then Great Lakes Region MoW car storage, it is now an empty expanse across which I spotted ACTX 210040, an orange-saddled car of Hydrogen Fluoride for Port Hope's Cameco plant, along with three bulkhead flat cars of pallet wood for Cobourg. Note the Continuous Welded Rail (CWR) train in background:

Also in the yard were CN locomotives 5414 and 2116. The next day, 5414 would lead the CWR train east to Kingston.

CN 2116 seemed to have some odd markings behind its cab. It's actually a CN welding truck behind the backhoe at left. At least four hi-rail trucks and three pieces of track machinery were jockeying back and forth on the yard tracks behind those stored Trailer-Train well cars.

Over at the car shop, I found this Herzog equipment. It's actually an RUM - Rail Unloading Machine used to thread rail from a CWR train. Here's a Herzog Youtube video which shows it in use.

Some detail shots, just in case an ardent Trackside Treasure reader has a yearning to scratchbuild one:

At 1110, VIA No 62/52 streaked eastward. CN No 376, a perennial favourite of mine at Belleville, arrived at 1130 behind CN 8925-5794. Easing to a stop at Elmwood Drive crossing for a recrew, it departed east through the mist and fog about 15 minutes later.

 About to depart, with incoming crew ready to do pull-by inspection:

 Starting to pull with ditch-lights now on:

The first car on the train, centre-beam bulkhead flat BCOL 730792 was toting Anderson Planers lumber. Able to note 99% of 376's consist, here is the breakdown of cars:

• 45 boxcars, mostly TBOX or FBOX
• 30 covered hoppers, mostly plain-jane ACFX grey on the tail-end
• 82 tank cars carrying a variety of commodities: styrene monomer, sulphuric acid, limestone slurry, carbon dioxide, xylene and propane
• 8 centre-beam bulkhead flats carrying Aspen Planers, Canfor, West Fraser, Riverside, Hampton Portland Oregon and Tolko lumber 

 My HO-scale decal work is not perfect, but neither is the lettering job on this GATX tank car.

 IC 385370, 101963 and 389152 were about thirty cars in:

 NADX 120056 is a sixty-foot single-door box among tank cars:

 Mid-train DP unit was 2277:

Back on November 13, sister car UNPX 123149 was also clean and pristine, also on No 376 at Kingston and here my Belleville report ends photographically. (I will be asking Santa for a second camera battery!) I subsequently caught No 373 westbound at 1200 with five tanks, 17 grain cars and 64 empty auto racks behind CN 3077. No 369 was arriving at 1400 behind CN 2330-8877, carrying Resolut and Barrette lumber, four pitch tankcars including CGTX 18472.

Running extra...

Thanks to Trackside Treasure's responsive readership for your kind comments and supportive emails you sent re: the previous post. The blogosphere continues to unfold as it should. Much appreciated.

This may not have been Albert Hammond's highest-charted song, but the vocal harmonies are tight (especially the sevenths around 2:45) and a version of this song with appropriate train images was shown on Captain Kangaroo many years ago. I'm A Train I'm A Chick-A Train Yeah!

Following up on the Cameco tank car, Mike Lockwood kindly shared two photos of Belleville power CN 4115-4125 switching Cameco the next day. ACTX 210040 is swapped for ACTX 210047; the power accessing plant trackage on the lead behind Port Hope's VIA station. Thanks, Mike!

If you're on Facebook, I'm posting a FB Christmas Thought of the day, daily between now and Dec. 24. I started a day early in case I get into some of my son's homemade eggnog and need to take a day off (12 large eggs, 1 pound sugar, pints of whole milk, heavy cream, half and half, cup of cognac, cup of bourbon, nutmeg and kosher salt). Season til festive.