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In
1972, the Penn Central and Western Pacific placed an
order for smooth-sided box cars from US Railroad Manufacturing
(evans), located in Blue Island, Illinois, a southern
suburb of Chicago deep in railroad roots. The PC’s
large order of 574 cars would become the “x72”
design, which featured smooth, welded sides and commonly
featured a large 6-panel Supe-rior door. One of the
purposes of this 10’ high door was so forklifts
could easily operate in and out of the car. The following
year PC placed another order for 500 x72A box cars,
which were of a slightly larger design. Together, these
cars served in general purpose service, making them
a popular and commonly seen car all across the North
American railroad system. After PC’s demise in
the late 70’s, the cars were absorbed by Conrail,
and continued plying the rails well into the 1990’s.
Towards the latter part of that decade, Conrail would
sell off most of their x72/72A fleet to Canadian National,
short lines, or scrappers. By the early to mid 2000’s
era, the majority of the x72 box cars had been phased
out of service, but there are still a few examples that
continue to roll along in Mexico and South America.
The x72 and x72A were important cars during the late
PC and Conrail eras and wore many paint variations right
up until the end of their service lives. One of the
most famous schemes this car might have worn was Conrail’s
“Buy And Hold US Savings Bonds” scheme, complete
with red white and blue stars clustered over the door.
Because of the vast network of cars Conrail owned, a
few cars escaped the paint booth and continued to roll
in PC green for many years. Whether your train only
needs a few or a large block on a manifest, headed back
to the warehouse, the x72 will look great in any of
the schemes Atlas has to offer.
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