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Do to the fact that the side ladders on this model only go partway up the body I would determine that this car does not have a roof walk.
Ed G.
I just checked the Lionel website and if you click on the picture of this box car it gets
enlarged and then you can clearly see that the box car does not a roof walk.
Ed G.
Here's some interesting comments from a modeller. He mentions compromises that have to be made, and it appears that he determined to model the car for the time in its life after the roof walks were removed and ladders shortened. Also some information about the rules requiring removal of roof walks.
Modeling a New York Central 60’ Appliance Boxcar
Posted by Tasha Oates - 1510 views - Filed in How-To - #weathering #Walthers #New York Central #Model Railroading #Kadee #Jim Six #Appliance Boxcar #Penn Central #PC #NYC #Cyanopoxy
By Jim Six
Photos by the author
Here is the finished Walthers 60’ appliance boxcar with added detail, modified draft gear with Kadee® #78 couplers, and weathering that was done with acrylic paints that were applied using paint brushes and Q-tips®. Except for the bottom of the model and the trucks, none of the weathering pictured here was done with an airbrush.
Having almost no freight cars for a 1970s setting I decided to do a few “former” New York Central boxcars. One that I prepared is the NYC appliance boxcar featured here.
The prototype for this model is a New York Central appliance boxcar. Astride what was arguably history’s greatest industrial area, the New York Central had a huge fleet of boxcars. Steel, auto, appliance, heavy and light machinery, machine tools, and other industries were served by the railroad’s boxcars. By the 1960s the railroad industry recognized the need for specialty freight cars and even the ubiquitous boxcar began to change with ever longer and taller configurations. The New York Central added a fleet of 60' double-door boxcars to serve both the auto and appliance industries. The prototype for the model featured here served the appliance industry. It was built and equipped for appliance loading. Viewed from the side, the Walthers model looks right on target for NYC cars except for the model’s short ladders and missing roofwalk.
I became convinced that if I was to have models of this New York Central prototype the Walthers car was the best way for me to go. Please note that I said “for me.” I am sure that for some folks this compromise is not acceptable.
Compromise. Yes, compromise. Like it or not we all do it. Some of us compromise more than others. Admittedly, I would rather the model match the NYC prototype, but it doesn’t. I admit it, and I can live with it. The challenge is to determine what compromises will work for each of us. For me the alternative is to do without this model.
I altered my model to represent one of the NYC cars as it would have appeared in the mid-1970s, presumably after the roofwalk had been removed, ladders shortened, and the brakewheel lowered. Many of these cars retained their high ladders and roofwalks well into the 1970s.
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Most railroad cars roof walks started being removed in 1968, when the FRA outlawed them except for certain types of cars. There was 10 year grace period where:
1. The roofwalk had to moved and the only side ladder that was full size was the one the reached to brake wheel.
2. The second phase was when brake wheels had to lowered to a half height side ladder. You could leave the ladders but they had to be cut down. Same thing with the roofwalk attachments.
3. The last phase was removing all roofwalk attachments and adding a crossing platform so the brakeman could get to the brake wheel without having to pass between cars.
By 1978, all cars in interchange service had to abide by these standards. No new cars, again with certain exceptions, have been produced since 1970 so car producing companies wouldn't have rework cars already in the pipeline. The main exception to the roofwalks on covered hoppers and a few other specialized cars. These are technically called loading platforms and it's illegal for a crew member to be on the roof while the car was in motion. None of these rules applied to company service cars and it's still common to see company service boxcars with roof walks.
1. The roofwalk had to moved and the only side ladder that was full size was the one the reached to brake wheel.
2. The second phase was when brake wheels had to lowered to a half height side ladder. You could leave the ladders but they had to be cut down. Same thing with the roofwalk attachments.
3. The last phase was removing all roofwalk attachments and adding a crossing platform so the brakeman could get to the brake wheel without having to pass between cars.
By 1978, all cars in interchange service had to abide by these standards. No new cars, again with certain exceptions, have been produced since 1970 so car producing companies wouldn't have rework cars already in the pipeline. The main exception to the roofwalks on covered hoppers and a few other specialized cars. These are technically called loading platforms and it's illegal for a crew member to be on the roof while the car was in motion. None of these rules applied to company service cars and it's still common to see company service boxcars with roof walks.
I guess the possibility would exist that although the car was originally equipped with roof walks, the walks were removed some time after the rule change came into effect. That was certainly true for many cars, apparently, perhaps most, expecially (I would think) for those that still had a fair amount of servicable life left in them.
Actually, the NYC didn't go bankrupt; it merged into the Pennsy in 1968, forming PennCentral. The PennCentral went bankrupt in 1970, and was taken over by the US Gov't., and then funnelled into Conrail in 1976.
I found another reference in a historical society comment, as follows:
"Running boards were eliminated from boxcars (without roof hatches)with cars placed in service after October 1, 1966."
I don't know when this particular car was placed in service, whether prior to Oct. 1966 or not, and therefore whether it ever entered service with a roof walk. Even if it had one, it could have been removed before the merger in 1968. In addition, there were plenty of NYC cars running around in their NYC liveries well after the PennCentral formed. So even if the car had a roof walk, and it was still present at the time of the merger, it's certainly possible that it was removed at some point while the car was still was painted in its NYC livery.
Personally, I wouldn't let the lack of a running board prevent me from getting the car if I otherwise wanted it, expecially considering that it's an open question whether the car ever had the board, and if it did, if it was removed. If I were really hung up about it, I'd get a spare running board from Lionel or Atlas O parts, or take one off another car, and slap it on. But that's just me.
