Santa Fe Box Cars: The Shock Control Era 1954-1995

Santa Fe Railway H&M Society. Spiral Bound. New. This new Volume on Santa Fe's modern box cars starts where John Dobyne's Santa Fe Railway Rolling Stock Reference Series Volume 4 Santa Fe Boxcars 1869-1953 left off. Beginning with the 500 cars Bx-66 Class cars of 1954 - one of the last classes of box cars to come lettered from the builders with name train slogans on the car sides - it completes the story of box car development up to the BNSF merger of 1995. This was the colorful Shock Control and Super Shock Control era. Topeka shops installed a 10-inch travel 'Shock Control' sliding center sill under frame in a Bx-66 Class box car in June 1958. Numbered, 10001 and re-classed as a Bx-77 with a new Indian red and black paint scheme with a large Santa Fe herald and new advertising slogan 'DF with Shock Control' splashed across the car side, this car ushered in a new era in box car construction. From then on, nearly all new classes of Santa Fe box cars were fitted with either a Shock Control, or a Super Shock Control under frame, introduced in 1961. The last box cars built new for Santa Fe were 200 XF food loading car in Class Bx-211 out-shopped at Santa Fe's Topeka shops in 1981. During this period a number of older classes were rebuilt, often to ease a box car shortage at the time, and others bought used from leasing companies. And over the years many specialized cars were built for and assigned to shippers, especially automobile and appliance manufacturers and breweries, and others were designated for food loading, flour loading and other specialized lading, like such as Perlite. Because the appearance of new rolling stock delivered to Santa Fe from the car builders often varied widely from standard Santa Fe painting and lettering practice, a painting and lettering reference by class or groups of similar classes for cars in as-delivered livery, is included in the appendix, along with representative photographs in color. Santa Fe Railway H&MS, 288 pages, 11x8?�?�?�?�?�?�?�?? coil bound, 317 black & white and 74 color photographs, 75 diagrams, appendix, roster.