USRA Single-Sheathed Boxcars
In late 1917, United States railroads were nationalized to better organize them in support of the WWI effort. As part of the deal, the railroads would be returned to their owners in as good or better condition within 21 months of a peace treaty. To fulfill this obligation, the USRA undertook a modernization program to replace obsolete equipment with the state of the art. The standardized USRA classes of steam locomotives are well known, but the USRA also introduced several standard classes of freight car.
The 40ft. 50-ton single-sheathed boxcar was one of these. The cars were of composite construction with a steel frame, roof, and ends, with wood sides braced by pressed-steel structural members. Beginning in late 1918, 25,000 of these cars were delivered to 22 different railroads. The cars were very successful in service, capable of higher loads and more durable than the all-wood cars they replaced. After the war thousands of copies were built by other railroads across North America, including Canada and Mexico. While by the late ’30s new all-steel boxcars were gaining in popularity, the composite design saw a brief resurgence during WWII. New "War Emergency" boxcars were built to a design similar to the USRA design from over 20 years prior to conserve steel. The cars were very durable. Some of the originals survived into the late 60’s in interchange service, and some were used into the 80’s in captive service.
I got a little carried away. This pack includes over 50 different skins for various railroads that owned original USRA cars or similar "clones".
The full list:
- Ann Arbor
- Atlanta Birmingham & Coast
- Algoma Central
- Baltimore & Ohio
- Chicago Burlington & Quincy
- Clinchfield
- Canadian National
- Central Railroad of New Jersey
- Chicago & Northwestern (2 skins)
- Chesapeake & Ohio
- Canadian Pacific
- Colorado & Southern
- Delaware & Hudson
- Duluth Missabe & Iron Range
- Denver & Rio Grande Western (2 skins)
- Detroit Toledo & Ironton
- Erie
- Fort Worth & Denver
- Georgia Railroad
- Green Bay & Western
- Grand Trunk Western
- Michigan Central
- Maine Central
- Milwaukee Road
- Missouri – Kansas – Texas
- Missouri Pacific
- Minneapolis & St. Louis
- New Jersey Indiana & Illinois
- Northern Pacific
- Norfolk & Western (2 skins)
- New York Central
- Pacific Electric
- Pittsburgh McKeesport & Youghiogheny
- Pennsylvania (4 road numbers, they had over 9000 cars of the X26 type at one point!)
- Portland Terminal
- Rutland
- Reading
- Richmond Fredericksburg & Potomac
- St. Louis & San Francisco
- Southern Pacific
- Sud Pacífico de México
- Southern Pacific Shasta Water
- Texas & New Orleans
- Virginian
- Wabash
- Western Maryland
- Western Pacific
Basically I made a skin for everything for which I could find reasonable reference. If I somehow missed one, there’s a blank paint kit texture included if you want to make your own. Or just send me reference and I’ll probably add it.
Additionally there is a generic colorable skin, and a random variant which will automatically choose from a pool of most of the skins.
These cars fall right in between the existing vanilla all-wood and all-steel cars.
Top Speed: 65 mph
Capacity: 13
Cargo Types: Grain, Plastic, Machines, Tools, Food, Goods
Weight: 22 tons
Available: 1918-1968
Credit to Pete Willard of RailSimStuff for most of the fonts and logos.
