Bangor and Aroostook
The BAR's first 50' box cars arrived from ACF in 1957 as the
10000 series. Like the 40' cars these 50 footers arrived in
"State of Maine" livery. Although about half of these
cars were repainted into the "Large BAR" scheme in the
1960s many remained in original paint well into the 1980s.
In 1971 the BAR began rebuilding the 10000 series cars with 35 cars numbered 9000-9034. Fifty more10000 series cars were rebuilt in 1975/76 with cushion draft gear, reinforced side sills, roller bearing trucks, and new Pullman Standard style doors and renumbered into the 9100-9149 series. The 9200-9249 series rebuilds of 1977/78 were similar but had standard Youngstown corrugated style doors.
Twenty five 10000 series cars were extensively modified between 1964 and 1966 for lumber service with three large roll up doors on one side only. The roll up doors were later removed. These "all door" cars were 57' long and numbered 24 through 49. It is obvious from the heavily weathered number 38 above how the extra 7' was added to the cars. In 1973/74 an additional 11 of the 10000 series cars were converted to 50' lumber cars with one side open and no roll up doors. These cars were numbered 9-19 and painted Forest Green with the triangle logo.
In 1979 the BAR converted six of the 24 series "all
door" lumber cars into 57' gondolas for hauling crossties.
These cars were numbered 34001-34006 and had removable ends to
allow loading/unloading equipment to move from car to car. In
1981 the BAR purchased 10 gondolas for general service from Evans
Railcar and numbered them 34100-34109.
Beginning in 1962 the BAR received several series of cushion
underframe 50' Pullman Standard PS-1 boxcars for newsprint
service. Cars 6000-6224 had sliding 9' doors while cars 6300-6499
had outside frame plug doors. These series of cars were all
delivered in the "State of Maine" scheme and many were
repainted in the triangle logo International Orange scheme in the
mid 1970s to early 1980s. A very few including 6224 above were
repainted in the large BAR scheme during the late 1960s -
probably as a result of wreck repairs. Numbers 6200-6224 were
unusual in that they were delivered with solid bearing instead of
roller bearing trucks. In 1983 many of the 6000-6224 series cars
were completely rebuilt with new cushion draft gear and
renumbered to the 8800 series. Some time in 1978 box car repaints
began receiving orange instead of black ends.
Beginning in 1966 the BAR's new box cars were delivered in
the "large BAR" instead of the "State of
Maine" scheme. The 6500-6699 series cars arrived that year
from Pullman Standard. These cars were nearly identical to the
6300-6400 cars delivered the year before except that they arrived
with low mounted brake wheels and no roof running boards. BAR's
last new Pullman Standard boxcars arrived in 1970 as the
6700-6799 series. These cars were 5" taller than previous
50' PS-1s taking advantage of the space vacated by roof running
boards. Although most 6500s eventually received International
Orange paint, many 6700s wore their original paint well into the
1990s. Recently 6700s have been painted dark blue with yellow
shield.
Also in 1966 the BAR received the 6800-6999 series 50' box cars.
These cars were unique in several ways. They were the only cars
the BAR purchased from General American (GATX) and the last cars
to be delivered with running boards on the roof. They were also
the only BAR box cars to have double plug doors and to have Hydra
Cushion underframes with their characteristic hydraulic cylinder
under the center of the car.
In 1981 the BAR rebuilt a few of the 6800 series into cars with
roof hatches for grain service. Some cars had their double doors
replaced with a single one. These cars were numbered in the 9060
series and just recently were repainted into a new version of the
original Red, White, and Blue box car scheme. (Anyone have a photo?). Number
9060 above is a good example of the salmon color that
International Orange often faded to.