Bluford Shops - 86151 - Boxcar, 85 or 86 Foot, Auto Parts - Southern - 42436

Prototype History: The three major automobile manufacturers in the United States, Chrysler, Ford, and General Motors, each developed specifications in the 1960s for specially built boxcars to transport automobile parts (not actual cars). They stated, if you build this type of car, your will be welcome to pick up and drop off parts at our plants. Thousands of these cars were built in the 1960s and 1970s. Three railcar manufacturers, Greenville, Pullman-Standard and Thrall took up the challenge and constructed 86 foot boxcars.

These cars are not only distinctive for their length (86 foot, also listed as 85 foot) but also for the fact that they were designed for a post-roofwalk world so they took advantage of the fact they didn't need to leave room for the roofwalk and instead are simply built taller. Hence they are considered High-Cube cars. They come in two major varieties: 8-door and 4-door. The eight door types were typically made for use at GM plants and have two sets of 9 foot doors on each side. When these doors are full opened, they created a pair of 18 foot opening on each side of the car. Their 4-door sisters, as specified by Ford and Chrysler, had one pair of 10 foot doors centered on each side, permitting a 20 foot opening.

As containers gradually replaced these cars for use in the auto industry, many were re-purposed for use in other industries that involve low-density commodities such as scrap paper.

Road Name History: The Southern Railway (reporting mark SOU) (also known as Southern Railway Company) was a US class 1 railroad that was based in the Southern United States. It was the product of nearly 150 predecessor lines that were combined, reorganized and recombined beginning in the 1830s, formally becoming the Southern Railway in 1894.

At the end of 1970 Southern operated 6,026 miles (9,698 km) of railroad, not including its Class I subsidiaries AGS (528 miles or 850 km) CofG (1729 miles) S&A (167 miles) CNOTP (415 miles) GS&F (454 miles) and twelve Class II subsidiaries. That year Southern itself reported 26111 million net ton-miles of revenue freight and 110 million passenger-miles; AGS reported 3854 and 11, CofG 3595 and 17, S&A 140 and 0, CNO&TP 4906 and 0.3, and GS&F 1431 and 0.3

The railroad joined forces with the Norfolk and Western Railway (N&W) in 1982 to form the Norfolk Southern Corporation. The Norfolk Southern Corporation was created in response to the creation of the CSX Corporation (its rail system was later transformed to CSX Transportation in 1986). The Southern Railway was renamed Norfolk Southern Railway in 1990 and continued under that name ever since. Seven years later in 1997 the railroad absorbed the Norfolk and Western Railway, ending the Norfolk and Western's existence as an independent railroad.

Brand/Importer Information: Bluford Shops began in 2007 as a side project of two model railroad industry veterans, Craig Ross and Steve Rodgers. They saw a gap between road names available on N scale locomotives but not available on cabooses. They commissioned special runs of Atlas cabooses in Atlantic Coast Line, Central of Georgia, Monon, Boston & Maine and Southern plus runs on Grand Trunk Western and Central Vermont on the MDC wooden cabooses. While these were in process, they began to develop their first all new tooling project, 86' Auto Parts Boxcars in double door and quad door editions in N scale. By January of 2008, Bluford Shops became a full time venture. Along with additional N scale freight cars and their own tooling for new cabooses, they have brought their own caboose line to HO scale. They also have their popular Cornfields in both HO and N. The future looks bright as they continue to develop new products for your railroad.

The town of Bluford in southern Illinois featured a small yard on Illinois Central's Edgewood Cutoff (currently part of CN.) The yard included a roundhouse, concrete coaling tower (which still stands) and large ice house. Reefer trains running between the Gulf Coast and Chicago were re-iced in Bluford. Things are more quiet now in Bluford with the remaining tracks in the yard used to stage hoppers for mines to the south and store covered hoppers. Intersecting the IC line in Bluford is Southern Railway's (currently NS) line between Louisville and St. Louis. Traffic on this single track line remains relatively heavy.