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Bluford Shops - 86532 - Boxcar, 85 or 86 Foot, Auto Parts - Detroit and Toledo Shore Line - 2 Different

One  of these sold for an average price of: 21.5521.55One of these sold for an average price of: 21.55
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N Scale - Bluford Shops - 86532 - Boxcar, 85 or 86 Foot, Auto Parts - Detroit and Toledo Shore Line - 2 Different Image Courtesy of Bluford Shops
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Stock Number86532
Original Retail Price$59.70
BrandBluford Shops
ManufacturerBluford
Body StyleBluford Box Car 86 Foot Auto Parts Double Door
Image Provider's WebsiteLink
Prototype VehicleBoxcar, 85 or 86 Foot, Auto Parts (Details)
Road or Company NameDetroit and Toledo Shore Line (Details)
Reporting MarksD&TS
Road or Reporting Number2 Different
Paint Color(s)Blue with Aluminum Doors
Print Color(s)White
Coupler TypeGeneric Magnetic Knuckle
Coupler MountTruck-Mount
Wheel TypeInjection Molded Plastic
Wheel ProfileSmall Flange (Low Profile)
MultipackYes
Multipack Count2
Item CategoryRolling Stock (Freight)
Model TypeBoxcar
Model Subtype86 Foot
Model VarietyAuto Parts Double Door
Prototype RegionNorth America
Prototype EraNA Era IV: 2nd Gen Diesel (1958 - 1978)
Scale1/160



Specific Item Information: Detroit & Toledo Shore Line 86’ boxcars. Detroit & Toledo Shore Line received this batch of cars from Greenville in 1969. The D&TS was just 50 miles long linking Detroit with Toledo but was double tracked and handled a large volume of traffic. Grand Trunk Western and Norfolk & Western (formerly Nickel Plate) each owned a 50% interest in the line. Nickel Plate had bought into the line to have a friendly connection to reach Detroit and GTW used it to reach Toledo. As you can see, the tilted square logo resembles GTW’s pre-1960 logo, while their black and yellow diesel paint scheme resembled that of the other parent Nickel Plate Road. It’s position gave it a vital role in the movement of auto parts. In 1981, GTW bought N&W’s share and merged the line into its system (leaving N&W to use their former Wabash routes to reach Detroit.) These cars joined the GTW fleet, some remaining in this paint scheme for close to two decades. This roadname will be available in 3 road numbers. 86531 Detroit & Toledo Shore Line single car $29.85; 86532 Detroit & Toledo Shore Line 2-pack $59.70.
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 D&TS was built just after the turn of the 20th Century, originally as a fast interurban line connecting Toledo with Detroit. With construction well underway (about 3/4 of the way to Detroit) and some of the trolley wire up, the backers started to run out of money and sold the line to Grand Trunk Western and The Clover Leaf Route, with each getting half. This would give GTW (which blanketed southern Michigan) a friendly connection to the rail hubs at Toledo. The Clover Leaf (officially the Toledo St. Louis & Western) got a friendly connection to Detroit. The trolley wire came down and the track was upgraded to GTW standards. From then on, Detroit & Toledo Shore Line was a multi-track 59 mile speedway for freight. Ironically for a line conceived as an interurban, the D&TS never offered passenger service. Later, they would adopt the motto, “Expressway for Industry.” In 1923, the Nickel Plate Road merged the Clover Leaf and took over their half of the D&TS.

In the steam era, about 30 locomotives were required to run the line. 2-8-2’s and 2-8-0’s handled the road traffic while USRA 0-8-0’s and some smaller switchers worked the yards. The D&TS dieselized in the early 50s with just three EMD models, SW7s and SW9s for switching and GP7s for road service. The 1953 batch of geeps was the last locomotives bought by the railroad! These were delivered in a yellow-over-blue paint scheme. The narrowly focused roster made the shop crews experts at getting the most from the fleet and keeping them running for the next three decades.

The crooked square logo is a nod to Grand Trunk Western while the black and yellow paint scheme adopted around 1959 is a nod to the Nickel Plate. In 1964, the Nickel Plate was merged into Norfolk & Western so they took the 50% stake in the D&TS. The Shore Line kept the Nickel Plate-esque paint scheme until the end however.

D&TS trains routinely ran north past Detroit and into Flint on GTW tracks, while GTW trains ran south all the way to the Toledo Terminal loop. After the 1964 N&W-Nickel Plate-Wabash merger, N&W had a better line west out of Detroit on the former Wabash rather than using the D&TS and the old Clover Leaf (which had been built on the cheap.) From then on, the D&TS became much more important to the GTW than to the N&W. In 1981, N&W finally sold their half to the Grand Trunk Western and the Detroit & Toledo Shore Line was merged into the GTW.
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.
Item created by: gdm on 2017-05-02 12:34:10. Last edited by CNW400 on 2020-09-04 08:59:37

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