Conrail inherited 50' boxcars from nearly every predecessor road. So many, in fact, that hundreds went into storage within several years of Conrail's creation.
Class 112B was constructed at the Despatch Shops by the NYC in 1967, as a group of 150 insulated cars.
Class 115B was constructed by the NYC at their Despatch Shops in 1967 with the distinctive Landis doors, numbering 100 cars.
30 cars built by FGE in 1967 for the NYC, who originally assigned them to service for Proctor & Gamble
The 132B class was built by Pacific Car and Foundry in 1967 as NYC 48360-48434. 58 cars carried their NYC number to Conrail and were renumbered to CR 230085-230142. Another 13 cars which had been previously renumbered to PC 265368-265425 became CR 265368-265425.
The 133B class was built by Pacific Car and Foundry in 1967 as NYC 78490-78519. Cars renumbered to PC became PC 360480-360506 then CR 360480-360506. The CR block of ex PC cars is not solid as ex EL cars were renumbered into the same number series. Cars that carried their NYC number to CR became CR 360803-360817.
The NYC had many classes of 50' boxcars, most in the 800-series. They can be found in this gallery.
The BA50A class was built by SIECO for the Raritan River Railroad as RR 400-499. When these cars were inherited by Conrail, they became CR 169600-169699.
Class BE50D was composed of 200 cars built by General American. All cars were equipped with Keystone cusion underframes and 193 also had DF load-restraining belts.
The BE50E class was built for the EL by General American in 1964, numbering 200 cars.
We believe the lone car in this class is actually a mis-classed BE50E, as the car's original EL number puts it in the middle of the class that became BE50E under Conrail
Class BE52C was originally built for the Erie by Greenville in 1956. There were originally 550 cars that received a variety of load restraining equipment when originally constructed. Some had their special equipment removed as time progressed.
Class BE55B was originally delivered to the EL in two groups, both built by General American. The first group in 1964 was composed of 75 cars, 60 equipped with interior load-dividers and 15 more with DF-2 interior belt loaders. The second group in 1965 had 30 cars with the DF-2 belt loaders and 50 with load dividers. All cars were insulated.
Class BE55C was composed of 150 cars originally built in 1967 for the EL by ACF. All were equipped with the ACF Freight-Saver cushion underframes, but individual groups of cars within the class were insulated and/or equipped with DF belt rails.
This class of cars was built by FGE for the EL with offset 14-foot doors to facilitate unloading from both sides simultaneously.
Conrail's BE55E class consists of a group of 75 FGE boxcars. These cars were purchased in 1974 by, of all companies, General Foods and leased to the EL to serve the General Foods plant in Rochester, NY. The cars were painted blue to denote this non-EL ownership. Their maintenance was handled off-line at FGE's Alexandria, VA facility, where they were given the non-standard yellow or orange paint schemes. Conrail chose to equip these cars with Keystone door-openers as time progressed.
Former LV cars
The BR50L class was built in 1972 by Pullman-Standard at their Bessemer, AL plant as RDG 20000-20199 and became CR 231597-231795. A couple of cars renumbered into the CR 209970 series. Several cars survived onto NS and CSX rosters and at least one car, RDG 20029, was restenciled NYC still carrying its RDG number.
Former RDG class RBLa cars, which were constructed by stretching 65 old 40' class XMy cars to create a new insulated car with load-restraining devices
The Reading RR stretched and insulated 10 old 40 foot boxcars from the XMy class (RDG 106000-799, 107000-499) into a new RBa class. These cars went to Conrail and were given the class BR55C. These cars were rated at only 50 tons and there was only 5 left by 1981.
The class BR55C was also given to RDG 19700-19789.
This class was built in Sept-October 1968 by PC&F in Renton, WA and were sold to the Merchants Despatch Company, who subsequently leased them to the PC. The 65 cars were never given a class by PC, leaving Conrail to assign them this oddball class.
173 Class X38F cars were rebuilt by the PRR from older X38 classes in the early 1960s
The PRR built 1250 class X44 boxcars in the early 1950s.
The PRR built 500 X45 boxcars in the early 1950s.
The X51 classes of cars was composed of groups built new at the Sam Rea Shops, as well as 1000 cars rebuilt on old X32 and X33 frames.
300 class X53 boxcars were built by the PRR in late 1959.
The PRR had 700 X55A boxcars built in the early 1960s, they are AAR class XML cars.
The X56 classes of cars were built by the PRR at it's Sam Rea Shops in Hollidaysburg in 1964.
Starting in 1964, the PRR began assembling X58 boxcars on home-built underframes from parts purchased by a wide variety of suppliers. The end result was a class of cars numbering 2,565. 100 cars were also built for the Lehigh Valley, and were folded into the X58 class upon the formation of Conrail.
Former PC and LV cars make up this class.
