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Between 1972 and 1973, Penn Central began purchasing the first of the 50' X72 boxcars from US Railroad Manufacturing (Evans) Blue Island, IL, plant. These cars would eventually find their way to Conrail in 1976. There is only one subclass of the X72, the X72A. But there appears to be no external distinction between the X72 and X72A. The X72 is a general purpose boxcar that can be found in nearly every service, making is a very common boxcar.The detailed rosters below are based on a January 1977 and an October 1991 Official Railway Equipment Register and reflect those roadnames that were in service at that time. I have made every effort to check them for accuracy, though cars that were taken off roster might still appear in service several years later. Plus many errors crept into Conrail's rolling stock fleet over the years. Please use these rosters only as a guide for your modeling efforts, combining them with photographic evidence.
Conrail Roster Introduction:
During the early years of the railroad, as reflected in the 1977 roster below, Conrail had higher priorities than repainting their massive freight car fleet. As a result, there were usually more freight cars still numbered and lettered for the predecessors than for Conrail. If you model these years, as I do, knowing the ratio of predecessor to Conrail lettered cars is essential if you're striving to be as prototypically accurate as possible.
Therefore, at the end of every line in the 1977 roster below is the total number of cars in that series that were lettered and numbered for Conrail at that time. Unfortunately, we do not know which cars these were, nor do we know if they were total repaints or simply CR stencil jobs. Compare this roster to the 1991 roster following it and notice the number of boxcars that were repainted or at least renumbered for Conrail.
January 1977
CR Series Class Equipment CR
========================================
229000-229499 X72A 16
266820-266875 X72 DF-2 3
269150-269429 X72 Dual Air Pak 2
269430-269500 X72 DFB 1
January 1991
CR Series Class Equipment
=============================================
168950-168956 X72 4 DFB Bulkheads
168962-168964 X72
184500 X72
209550-209566 X72
229000-229499 X72A
266820-266875 X72 9 Belt DF-2
269150-269429 X72 Dual Air Pak (Note 1)
269430-269500 X72 DFB
269840-269999 X72 4 DFB Bulkheads,
100 ton center plate
casting
Penn Central Roster Introduction:
As mentioned above, there were usually more freight cars still numbered and lettered for the predecessors than for Conrail. But by the 1990s most predecessor rolling stock had been either repainted into Conrail colors, had at least been stenciled for Conrail, or had been retired.
At the end of every line in the 1991 roster below is the total number of cars in that series that were still lettered and numbered for PC at that time. Conrail began a massive boxcar rebuilding program in 1980, therefore new series are present in the 1991 that were not in the 1977 roster.
January 1977
PC Series Class Equipment
============================================
229000-229499 X72A
266820-266875 X72 DF-2
269150-269429 X72 Dual Air Pak
269430-269500 X72 DFB
269840-269999 X72 4 DFB Bulkheads,
100 ton center plate
casting
January 1991
PC Series Class Equipment PC
=========================================
266820-266875 X72 DF-2 4
269150-269429 X72 Dual Air Pak 17
269430-269500 X72 DFB 7
269840-269999 X72 2
NOTES:1. All except the following in this series are X72 boxcars: 269205, 269241, 269248, 269283, 269328, 269375, 269382, 269304, 269424.
Thanks To: Lon Godshall for his gift of a 1977 Conrail ORER roster.
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