86251 Central of Georgia double door single car,86252 2-pack.
This batch of CoG cars was delivered in the summer of ‘66 and also initially assigned for loading in Cleveland, although at a Ford ’s Walton Hills plant.The 1,700+mile Central of Georgia blanketed much of Georgia and Alabama with branches to Tennessee and Florida. In the early 60 ’s, Southern gained control of the CoG and their influence spread into the lettering styles used on CoG ’s 8,000+car fleet.

86201 Chicago & North Western -Yellow single car, 86202 2-pack.
In 1980, Chicago & North Western changed from boxcar red to this yellow and black scheme with a three-color logo on many boxcars. The C&NW logos also changed over the years. These cars were delivered in brown with yellow and black “Chicago and North Western Railway ”logos which was later replaced by “Employee -North Western -Owned ” but by the time these cars were painted yellow, they had long since switched to “Chicago and North Western System".

86211 CP Rail (MILW) single car, 86212 2-pack.
CP Rail ’s auto parts fleet includes former Milwaukee Road cars like these. The single and one car in the 2-pack have the lettering arrangement shown above. The other car in the 2-pack has the CP Rail name a few panels to the right as on the prototype for its road number. The painted door bars and area around the door latches on this batch seems to be unique to CP Rail.

86281 C&O Chessie System double door single car, 86282 2-pack.
Although the Chesapeake & Ohio had controlled the Baltimore & Ohio since 1962, the Chessie System name and image as we see it here did not appear until more than a decade later. Many Chessie cars kept their original unpainted aluminum doors while some shops painted them right along with the body. There was no deep meaning to the color of the doors on Chessie System. On this run, the single has silver doors while the 2-pack has one car with silver doors and one car with blue doors. Also note the logo and data placement toward the right ends are different between the two 2-pack cars. How cool is that!? .

86181 Frisco single car, 86182 2-pack.
Frisco served auto plants in Oklahoma and Missouri plus handled considerable bridge traffic from the Deep South to the Midwest and Southwest. The Frisco was acquired by Burlington Northern in 1980!

86271 Grand Trunk Western double door single car, 86272 2-pack.
GTW has always been a major player in the movement of auto parts and the 1980 purchase and later merger of the DT&I only solidified that position. That brought GTW up to 1,500 miles with a 12,000 car fleet. In the wake of the collapse of arch-competitor Penn Central, GTW began billing itself as "the Good Track road" in a not-so-subtle dig at their deteriorating neighbor. The single in this run has blue doors, as does one car in the 2-pack. The other car in the 2-pack has silver doors.

86291 Illinois Central Gulf double door single car, 86292 2-pack.
The 7,100 mile Illinois Central Gulf was well positioned to handle auto parts traffic between the upper midwest and central southern states and contributed these Greenville built cars to the various 86' boxcar pools accordingly. For the 1972 merger of Illinois Central and Gulf Mobile & Ohio, the IC's "split rail" logo was modified, joining the two halves and centering the dot above. In 1988, ICG changed their name back to Illinois Central but retained a version of the big I logo. In 1999, Canadian National purchased the IC and these cars joined the greater CN fleet.

86301 L&N Family Lines double door single car; 86302 2-pack.
Louisville & Nashville received their last batch of 86' boxcars from Greenville in 1977. They were delivered in this Family Lines paint scheme. The Family Lines consisted of Seaboard Coast Line, L&N, Clinchfield, Georgia, Atlanta & West Point, and Western Railway of Alabama (the latter two were known together as The West Point Route.) SCL owned a significant block of L&N stock. The two together jointly owned the Clinchfield. L&N and SCL also jointly controlled the Georgia who in turn controlled the two West Point Route roads. So the Family Lines was not an encorporated entity but could be thought of as a shared marketing image. Beginning in 1983, L&N and SCL were merged as Seaboard System with the other Family Lines roads included as well. Seaboard System was already under the CSX Corp umbrella and about three years later Seaboard System changed its name to CSX Transportation.

86321 Milwaukee Road - yellow double door.
Delivered to Milwaukee Road in 1977, these cars arrived in yellow with black ends, touting Milwaukee’s moniker, “America’s Resourceful Railroad.” Assembled by Greenville, they were placed in service with ACI tags and con-stencils with the format correct for the time. These cars were originally assigned for loading by Ford.

86331 Missouri - Kansas - Texas double door single car, 86332 2-pack.
After a number of troubled years, the Board of Directors at MKT brought in John W. Barriger III, a railroad turnaround specialist credited with saving the Monon and doing wonders for P&LE, to whip the Katy into shape. One of Barriger's priorities was to update the freight car fleet. This batch of Greenville 86' boxcars delivered in 1969 was a direct result of that program. Like neighbors MoPac and Frisco, Katy was in a position to serve auto assembly plants in the Sun Belt and contributed cars to (likely Ford) pools.

86241 Norfolk &Western double door single car,86242 2-pack.
Norfolk & Western ’s 86 ’ boxcar fleet was very large,reflecting the importance of the auto business to predecessor Wabash whom N&W leased in 1964. This large batch was delivered in the Spring of ‘65 in this paint scheme. They were initially assigned for loading on the Chicago Heights Terminal & Transfer (now part of UP.)Note that N&W used an alternate version of the “hamburger logo ” on their auto parts cars with a taller “N&W ”. We’ll call this the “extra-meat” version of the hamburger...

86311 New York Central double door single car, 86312 2-pack.
This batch of 101 cars was delivered to New York Central in 1965. Initially at least, they were assigned to carry Chrysler parts. At this point in the Central’s history, they had 9,700 route miles in 10 states and 2 Canadian provinces. The freight car fleet was a whopping 78,000+ cars. New York Central blanketed southern Michigan as well as auto manufacturing centers in Indiana, Ohio, western New York and others, making this line vital to the industry.

86261 Penn Central double door single car, 86262 2-pack.
In addition to the huge auto parts fleet inherited from New York Central and Pennsylvania Railroads, Penn Central ordered more of these double door cars in 1969 from Pullman Standard. At this point, Penn Central had far and away the largest fleet of 86' boxcars in the country. For that matter, they had the largest freight car fleet in the country with an astounding 187,000 cars! .

86162 Pennsylvania 2 Pack Set
Delivered in 1966, this group of PRR cars was the largest batch ever delivered of this type of car. PRR had such a huge freight car fleet (over 112,000 cars of all types) that a typical mixed freight anywhere in the country was statistically certain to have some PRR cars in it!

87101 Pennsylvania quad door single car, 87102 2-pack.
Pennsylvania received this group of quad-door cars in 1965 whereupon they were assigned to carrying Chevy body panels. GM, as a rule, preferred quad-door cars over their double door cohorts. Unlike most PRR double door cars, this batch of quad door cars had black ends (probably “car-cement” rather than black paint) and we are replicating this detail on our run.

86171 Penn Central ex-PRR single car.
PC 237851 had been delivered in PRR paint but shortly after the 1968 Penn Central merger, the car was renumbered and the PRR keystone covered by the new PC logo. Apparently the PRR tuscan red was in too good a shape to warrant repainting the whole car green... (Single only-no 2pk).

86221 Union Pacific single car, 86222 2-pack.
In 1983, the merger-enlarged Union Pacific adopted this paint scheme. Cars from the WP and MoPac fleets carried their original road numbers. The single car has a UP number while the 2-pack has Western Pacific and Missouri Pacific road numbers. Note the variations in placement of other lettering. Even the logo on the UP car is in a different place. This kind of variation seems to be common on today ’s Union Pacific fleet. .

86191 Western Pacific single car, 86192 2-pack.
WP had a large Ford plant on line at Milpitas, California and forwarded parts from Midwestern parts plants to this facility. Since this group of cars was part of a large multi-plant pool, a number of WP cars could be seen moving parts between the South and Midwest as well.

87051 New York Central -- Click on photo for previous Bluford 86' Boxcar releases still available.