AZL 904379-1 Northern Pacific 40' AAR Boxcar | 2-Car Set

Road numbers: 15007. 15112

This release represents the standard 1937 AAR 40' Boxcar. It is offered with Murphy raised panel roof, both Youngstown and Superior doors and the most common 4-5 Dreadnought ends. AZL also offer the correct choice of wooden and etched steel running boards. This enables AZL to offer a very prototypical boxcar.

Some small notes on freight cars in general. Trucks used to be bolted together and that was outlawed by A.R.A. / A.A.R. for good reasons. A maintenance nightmare since they could come apart. Replaced by solid frame trucks they also saw a change as A.A.R. made roller bearings mandatory in the early 1950s.

Other developmental changes effected the running boards. They were probably all wooden to start with. Wood was more slippery than steel, so wood was banned in 1944. In the 1950s running boards and side ladders were outlawed as well. That is why the 1930s Box Cars lived long with updates through their operational lives. By 1970 these Box Cars could not be found on Class 1 railroads any longer.