Rehabilitation of NP 28417

The Museum has completed another boxcar rehabilitation. Work included repair or replacement of deteriorated wood siding, relocating end tack boards to their original location, restoring tack boards to the doors, replacing the wood running boards on the roof, and general cleaning and painting. Original lettering configuration was applied with paint masks. A crew led by Richard W. conducted the research and performed the work, which took place during a several month interval. Other active participants included Dick H., Martin N., Dale C., and Dan C. Work was completed inside the Museum's Conservation and Restoration Center.

Boxcars were the mainstay of yesterday's freight railroads. They could be found hauling nearly everything: manufactured goods, automobiles, grain, lumber, and even aircraft parts. Today, most of these same functions are performed by shipping containers.

The Northern Pacific Railway boxcar NP 28417 was built in June 1944 by Pullman-Standard under the railway’s Authorization for Expenditure (“AFE”) 5079-43. The original design was for an all-steel car however WW II steel shortages resulted in a modified design that substituted wood for the car sides. The design was designation “single sheathed war emergency boxcar” to indicate the wood substitution.

NP 28417 retained its Northern Pacific initials and numbers until after the merger that created the Burlington Northern. In 1976 it was retired to work service and was renumbered BN 950289 (AFE 75-3076). In continued to serve the railway until circa 1983 when it was retired and sold to the Northwest Railway Museum for the sum of $200.

The Museum also owns NP 28129, another car from the same order. That car remained in revenue service until 1974 and was also purchased by the Museum circa 1983.

Check out the larger proportions of NP 28417 compared to NP 14794 built just 12 years earlier. The older car was rehabilitated last year.

Boxcar completed

Volunteers lead by Rich W. have completed a modest effort to rehabilitate a 1932-built Northern Pacific Railway boxcar. Working inside the Conservation and Restoration Center over a three month period, the car is presented as it appeared in July 1953 after being shopped in Duluth, MN. (Click here to view an earlier post described the importance of boxcars.)

Work performed this year focused on preservation (stopping deterioration) and rehabilitation (reversing damage). At the beginning of the process, workers searched the carbody for evidence of lettering both for font style and location. Traces of nearly all lettering from the last shopping were found. Also noteworthy were the wide variety of mineral red samples found on the car.

Now damaged wood has been stabilized with epoxy, the entire wood carbody has been primed with an epoxy primer, the nailer/fascia board has been replaced, minor tears in the sheet metal roof have been patched, the hand brake has been repaired, the air valves have been serviced, all other surfaces have been cleaned and repaired as needed, and the car has been lettered using a paint mask. Color coats were applied with conventional alkyd enamels and are expected to fade on exposure to sunlight just as the original railway-applied mineral red did. Total cost of materials was nearly $2,000; over 400 hours were donated to the effort.

Boxcars for almost everything

Once upon a time, nearly everything moved in a boxcar. Grain, finished lumber, automobiles and parts, tools, house wares, clothing, aircraft parts, and nearly everything else imaginable could be found moving in a boxcar. Today, containers have replaced boxcars in most applications but a few remain in service for special applications such as newsprint and pulp. A few of the classic boxcars survive in museums including the Northwest Railway Museum.

The Museum has several great examples of typical boxcars and one of them is in the Conservation and Restoration Center for some rehabilitation work. Skilled workers of the Northern Pacific Railway built boxcar 14794 in September 1932 at their Brainerd, Minnesota shops. It has 80,000 pounds capacity and is 40 feet long; it was part of an order of 500 cars. It features composite wood and steel construction, and has a classic rolling corrugated steel door. The t & g roof is clad with interlocking sheet metal to keep the inside dry; this was a relatively new innovation in 1932. Much of the design and construction is simple but robust, which allowed it to serve the Northern Pacific Railway for an astoundingly long period - nearly 50 years!

Rehabilitation work is replacing the fascia board along the top of the car side (see old and new comparison photo to the left), and is injecting all other deteriorated wood with epoxy. Wood and steel surfaces are being prepared and coated with appropriate primer (gray Awlgrip for the wood) and top coated with an appropriately tinted boxcar red.

Thanks to Rich W. for historical data used in this post.

Collection care or facadism?

At the Northwest Railway Museum, care for the entire artifact is essential to its long term survival. Many artifacts are 100 years or more of age and have remained outside for that entire time. Water and insects have intruded into many features of the object – in fact into areas that some of the curators may not even know exist. So when an object is being rehabilitated or restored, collection care staff must look at every element to ensure that all threats have been addressed, especially if it involves water, rot or insects.

For instance, take the roof of the Northern Pacific Railway boxcar depicted here. The object was built during WW II as a special wartime composite wood and steel car that conserved steel in a time of shortage. In the approximately 70 years since it was built, water has allowed fungus to gradually consume the wood behind the object’s fascia board along the edge of the roof (technically, the "plate" on this car). A more expedient method of addressing the problem may be to replace the fascia and ignore the underlying plate that is normally hidden from view – in essence, focusing on the facade. That approach may seem cost effective in the short term but over years (or even decades) the object and much of its significance will be lost. What significance are we talking about? The techniques and craftsmanship that built the car and that are preserved in the structure – both seen and unseen. It helps us to understand why or how things we take for granted today came to be. That is an important responsibility for a museum because if we don't do it, who will?