Remembering the Rutland - Capsule History

RUTLAND 8000-SERIES BOX CARS
By Jeff English

Build Data-
Rutland Numbers:  8000 - 8299
Built:  July - September, 1924
Builder: Youngstown Steel Car Company, Niles, Ohio
Financed by 1924 Trust 5%

Assigned NYC Lot number: Lot 485-B, but this was never stencilled on the cars.

From Plentiful to Rare-  These were double-sheathed, steel underframe box cars, built following a NYC design of 1916 with very minor modification.   The handful of extant Rutland cars are, to my knowledge, the last remaining original examples of this design, other than a few surviving all-steel rebuilds, out of a production run of over 10,000 double-sheathed cars for NYC and its subsidiaries.

Design features include: steel underframe with twin fishbelly steel center sills and wood stringers; semi-structural side construction of wood truss with steel rodding, wood sheathed both inside and out; Murphy corrugated steel ends with inward facing corrugations in 8-6 configuration (most NYC had 7-7 configuration); Murphy XLA flexible metal roof.

Lettering on cars remained as built except for changes in the format of dimensional data, in conformance with changes in AAR standards. White stencil paste on oxide-red cover coat. Black underframe. Some cars may have received a coat of black car cement on roofs, perhaps if they experienced roof leak problems, but normal practice was to paint roofs oxide red. Most, if not all,
received "Route of the Whippet" slogan circa 1939, but repaints after World War II did not include this. As far as is known, no cars were ever painted green & yellow.

Rebuilds-  During the 1940s and early 1950s, 35 cars from this series were processed through a general reconditioning program which resulted in new numbers being assigned in the 6000-series. (8085 was obviously not part of this.)

(Note: one of these rebuilds, #6081, is today at the Strasburg Museum in Pennsylvania, where a full restoration was completed in 2000 -jrd).

Brakes & Trucks-  Cars were built with K-type brake equipment, but were upgraded to AB brakes during the 1940s. As far as is known, all cars received the AB brake conversion. All cars retained vertical handbrake staffs. Also, most, but not all, received AAR cast steel trucks with U-section sideframes, in replacement of the original T-section trucks. As far as is known, there were no other modifications of substance.

Dimensions were never changed from as-built:

Inside Length: 40'-6"
Inside Width: 8'-6"
Inside Height: 8'-8"
Capacity: 2987 cu. ft.
Door Width: 6'-0"
Door Height: 8'-4"
Exterior Length: 42'-3"
Width at Eaves 9'-7"
Extreme Width: 10'-4"
Height at Extreme Width: 6'-4"
Height at Eaves: 12'-8"
Height of Running Board: 13'-5"
Extreme Height: 14'-0"
Nominal Load Capacity: 40 tons

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Latest Revision Date: 10/28/01