Elvas Tower: Southern Pacific B-50-12-A USRA Single Sheathed Steel Side Rebuild - Elvas Tower

Southern Pacific received 1,000 cars from AC&F, Haskel & Barker and Pullman in 1919, class B-50-12, series 26360-27359. The cars were steel sheathed in the second half of 1949, class B-50-12-A. This model represents those rebuilt cars.

The rebuilding program started by removing and discarding the roof and sides from the old single-sheathed cars and cleaning the remaining parts by sandblasting. Afterwards the 5/5/5 corrigated Murphy ends were removed. Frames were inspected and repaired as needed and the original Andrews trucks were refurbished and re-used. New steel sides from Youngstown Steel Door Co. were installed and the Murphy ends were attached, now with a 5/4/5/3 corrigation configuration and wide sheet steel transitions to cover the new height and width from the old. New roof panels from Standard Railway Equipment were assembled into a roof and applied. These were of the diagonal-panel design. New Apex Tri-Lok running boards and new Youngstown steel doors were installed. All the B-50-12-A's kept their original road numbers until the 1956 re-numbering. About 675 cars were thus rebuilt and any remaining cars of the original class were either scrapped or placed in non-interchange company service.

About 64 cars were placed in auto parts service as XME DF loaders and XAP Oldsmobile engine cars.

241 cars survived into 1960 and beyond. Some in veneer service had their doors removed and the openings widened.

Original File Name = SP_Boxcar_27137.zip