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Central of Georgia Ventilated Boxcar

History

The Central of Georgia had four groups of ventilated box cars that were delivered with Murphy steel ends. This model represents a car in the fourth in series 56501–58500 that were built by the Tennessee Coal, Iron and R.R. Co. (TCI&RR Co.) in 1926. Although the cars in the four groups were built by different manufacturers, they were nearly identical in construction details.

All of these ventilated box cars were equipped with a ventilated door and a solid door on each side. The ventilated doors and open end louvers made these cars perfect for handling fresh fruits and vegetables. One of the most common uses was the shipment of watermelons, which earned them the often used name, "watermelon car". However, the use of the solid door, along with closed end ventilators, made the car weather tight and cpable of other uses, such as shipment of baled cotton and lumber, commodities that were plentiful throughout the Central's system.

The November 1957 Central of Georgia OFFICIAL LIST shows only 13 ventilated box cars still in active interchange service. It is not known when the last car was retired, but it was probably shortly after the list was published.

The Model

The ventilated box car is a resin kit manufactured by Smoky Mountain Model Works (www.smokymountainmodel works).

the kit is built basically stock per the instructions. The car was painted with Scalecoat II Oxide Red. The underframe was painted with Polly Scale Tarnished Black. The trucks are Tichy Andrews Trucks.

The kit contained an underframe for an AB Brake set. The instructions contained information that the supplied instructions were in error. The instructions recommended the use of revised instructions. However, the kit contained an underframe for the original instructions. I am not sure if this was an error on the CGHS's part. To build the underframe as suggested in the revised instructions would have required rebuilding the underframe. This would have been expensive and time consuming. After discussing the problem with the customer, we decided to build the kit as shipped.

Bibliography

Central of Georgia Historical Society, Instruction Sheet. Visit their website at Central of Georgia Historical Society

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