The Florence & Cripple Creek boxcar is the prototype for the kit created by and for the One-20point3 group in March 2001. This kit produces a car whose length over end sill is 17.875", width over siding is 4.5", and height at roof peak (not including trucks) is 4.9375".
This listing provides information on the origin of these cars and their subsequent travels to various western narrow gauge railroads, and includes available plans and photographic references. See also the Hermann Darr article in the March 1993 Railroad Model Craftsman.
Florence & Cripple Creek ordered car numbers 500-699, built by American Car & Foundry and Peninsular Car in the period April 1899 to January 1900.
These cars measured 30' 2" long by 7' 9" wide over the siding and had 4' 0" trucks on 21' 10" truck centers; height over the roof walk was 10' 2-5/8". These dimensions are from the John Maxwell plan F-5 -- note that dimensions on the various plans cited here disagree slightly.
Plan: John Maxwell F-5, reprinted in CRRM Annual (Volume 13), no
lettering.
Plan: Joel Crea, Slim Gauge News, Spring 1972, with full hand-
rendered lettering and "The Gold Belt Line" herald.
Survivor: 588 at Colorado Railroad Museum, Golden, CO.
Magma Arizona purchased six cars in November 1916 which became 102-107;
102 was F&CC 630, others unknown.
Note: three other boxcars were converted to flatcars, among the group
MARR 301-306.
Photo: broadside of #102 in CRRM Annual cited above.
Montana Southern acquired eight cars in 1918-1919.
Survivors:
At CRRM, Golden: MS 500, repainted to the above mentioned F&CC 588.
At Nevada City, Montana: 501 (ex638), 502 (ex627), 504 (ex522), 505
(ex 547 or 647 -- or 622 (per John Schapekahm) -- erroneously re-painted 347).
Nevada-California-Oregon in 1915 purchased the following 49 cars, which retained the same numbers: 500, 502, 504, 507, 509, 515, 516, 518, 521, 524, 527, 534, 536, 543, 545, 546, 548, 549, 552, 556, 558, 561, 562, 567, 573, 578, 582, 585, 587, 597, 603, 608, 617, 626, 629, 636, 642, 648, 657, 658, 659, 661, 662, 665, 670, 679, 688, 689, and one other, number not known.
Plan: David Braun NCO-1 showing diamond herald to left of door and
sans-serif "N. C. O" above Roman "661" to right of door.
Plan: David Braun NCO-1a showing sans-serif " N. C. O." to left of door
and Roman "688" to right of door (no herald).
Photos: I am aware of none which show a decent view of the F&CC cars.
From measurements of a different (non-F&CC) NCO car at Alturas (CA)
in 1969, the letters in "N. C. O" are each 8" high and 7-7/8" to 8"
wide. The car number had faded away entirely, but was presumably the
same height.
Survivors: car body of 543 on the ground at Alturas (as of 1969). The N-C-O lettering had mostly faded away, but the Gold Belt herald could still be made out.
Nevada County Narrow Gauge bought 21 cars from N-C-O in 1929, assigning even numbers 100-140.
Plan: Hermann Darr NCNG-1 for #134, showing sans-serif "NCNGRR"
arched over Roman "134" to left of door. Notation: "Sold to Navy Dept,
Pearl Harbor, Hawaii in 1942".
Plan: Hermann Darr NCNG-14, showing car number to left of door (no
other lettering at all). This plan also depicts NCNG rebuilding of
late 30s - early 40s. Notation seems to say that *all* these cars
went to US Navy.
Photos: Page 147 in Best's Nevada County Narrow Gauge shows oblique
view of three cars in middle distance. First two are like plan NCNG-
14, third is like plan NGNC-1. Page 200 shows #100 (like NCNG-14).
More photos: Two of #138 on page 170 in Browne's A Tale of Two Cities and a Train. Shows aftermath of it (#138) being pushed into a house by runaway gravel cars - but also gives closeup of part of the lettering.
Survivor: F&CC 507 was acquired from Universal Studios and is being rebuilt "from the sills up" by the NCNG Railroad & Transportation Museum (see www.oro.net/~ncngrr for information on this and other restorations). However, this is not an ex NCNG car, it's ex SP 28.
Pacific Coast Railway acquired ten cars from N-C-O and assigned even
numbers 1500-1518.
Plan: Curtiss Johnson in The Pacific Coast Railway, Page 257.
***NOTE: This plan is the basis for the One-20point3 group's kit.
Photos: #1516 on page 256, same book. In the photo of #1506 on page 258, all three lettering schemes (F&CC, N-C-O, PCRy) can be discerned. There is a different photo of #1506 on page 96 of Best's Ships and Narrow Gauge Rails, showing the other end and side - and different end lettering.
Southern Pacific transferred 15 cars to Owens Valley line after
acquiring and standard-gauging N-C-O, numbering them 26-40.
Plan: Hermann Darr SP-24 for #38 shows lettering, including a simple
SP circular herald to right of door.
Photos: Southern Pacific Narrow Gauge by Mallory Hope Ferrell.
Photo of #36 and 48 on page 224 shows a typical Colorado car end-to-end with a typical California car, demonstrating the lower height and the slightly steeper roof pitch of the Colorado car.
On same page: photos of #37 and #26, the latter showing the white-on-black SP herald; on page 225, three detail shots of #26.
Page 227: Two color shots (end and three-quarters) of #36.
US Navy acquired some (all?) of the NCNG ex F&CC cars in 1942-43.
Photo: Best's Nevada County Narrow Gauge, page 142, shows an ex F&CC car and another (non ex F&CC) boxcar. Cars appear to have been repainted black and lettered "NAVAL SUPPLY DEPOT" to left of door and "PEARL HARBOR" to right of door. Lettering appears not yet complete -- no car number on side, some dimensional lettering not there. Number on end is fuzzy, but looks like "7??".
An addendum concerning the color: In a personal letter from Ward Kimball to author Curtiss Johnson, Ward indicated that the Pacific Coast Railway cars that were shipped to Pearl Harbor were painted Navy Blue (not black). He (Curtiss) has no proof that cars from other railroads were blue or black. (Per Curtiss March 23, 2001.)
(Ed. - I would guess the paint was specified by, possibly supplied by, the Navy, so cars from other railroads would likely have been the same color.)
BONUS for having read this far:
Florence & Cripple Creek rebuilt two of these cars into refrigerator cars 1000-1001. Maxwell's plan says this happened in 1910, but freight car roster in CRRM Annual 13 says "F&CC records show No. 1000 built 3/03 and No. 1001 built 1 / 04."
Plan: John Maxwell F-9, showing lettering scheme. A notation says "Ice hatches on roof?" and the plan does not show them.
Nevada-California-Oregon bought 1001 in 1915 and renumbered it 01001.
Plan: David Braun NCO-2 showing lettering scheme similar to N-C-O boxcar 661 above with herald. This plan shows roof hatches.
Prepared in Microsoft Word 97 March 22, 2001. Version 2 uploaded by Maurice (Maurie) Walker, March 24, 2001. If you have additions or corrections please send them to me at mawa@gwl.com or MWalker637@aol.com.
