CNR Woodchip Cars - Models

A string of CNR woodchip cars are seen along the White River Division.

Guess it is about time I do a follow up to the photo-op Peter and I held with our CNR woodchip cars. It is now 25 years since Peter and I co-authored the woodchip car article. It was published in the July 1990 issue of RMC. Back in those days our weekly work evenings did not happen as regularly as our current work afternoons. We built our woodchip cars assembly style. The article tells the whole story but I thought I could touch on the highlights. The photos tells one the rest of the story.

We began the project with Front Range boxcars which came with separate roofs. We modeled both the welded side and riveted side cars. All had 6' doors or openings. There are three versions of the doors used. Welded panels, 6 foot car doors and hinged welded panels with cross-braces.  Since I worked for the CNR and these cars showing up back then on a regular basis I was able to get all the measurements we needed while at work. The extension heights ranged from 20" to 24". Some had no extension at all. Trap doors are 29" square with 2" trim. The corner pockets are 8" by 24". A set of car plans was included in our article.

Currently one can follow on the Hedley Junction blog a group of CN woodchip cars being built...George Dutka

 hedley-junction.blogspot.ca

CN 856811 had a swinging door with braces. It had a lower top extension. CN856034 had a welded panel doorway and a 24" extension. Both cars have riveted sides. We used photos to locate the clean-out trap doors. Not all cars had these. The main lettering was done with CDS dry transfers.

CNR 857494 is a riveted side car with 24" extensions and a welded door with a trap in the door without trim. CN 858297 is a welded side car with no extension added. This cars had steel bracing the length of the car and a welded door with a clean out trap off to the side.

CNR 856352 has riveted sided with a 6' car door. The clean out trap is off to the side of the door. The car has a 24" extension. No corner pockets on this car.

Here we have a better look at CN 858297 with welded sides and no extension. Some cars had corner pockets painted yellow. This car did not have any.

And with this last look we see our woodchip train depart the White River Division with a variety of cars.