The Story of IPD Boxcars 

I love how one of the first shots was a clip from Buster Keaton's Railrodder.

Bring back the colorful boxcars. They made sitting at the crossing a joy to behold. At least for me as a kid, and a big kid now, if not for my parents. I always like seeing the orange Ilinois Central boxcars with its white "i" on a black circle logo.

In the summers of 1974 and 1975 I had a summer job working on the assembly line at Pacific Car & Foundry, and worked on boxcar orders for companies such as Frisco, Southern Pacific, Union Pacific, ATSF, and Burlington Northern. There was amazing variety in the ways these orders were built based on the demands of the railroad. Some were quite nice (ATSF comes to mind), and others were just a cheap as possible (SP comes to mind). PC&F built some big orders for Railbox, but I wasn't working there then. My dad was an industrial photographer there, and he kept me apprised of what was going on. The story in the late 70's was that whenever a railroad was putting together a train to go to Mexico that they would always use the Railbox cars because frequently the boxcars never returned from those trips, the and the railroads didn't want to lose their own cars. I don't know if that's factual, but that was the scuttlebutt at the time.

I wrote my master's thesis on this phenomena. NRUC really over supplied their shortlines (Pickens, St. Lawrence, Middletown & New Jersey) to the point they couldn't fit them all, even if they used the mainline track. Further, they only provided single door boxcars, when the western roads wanted double door boxcars for lumber loading. NRUC also had a strange definition of "utilization" - not the percentage of miles spent loaded, but the percentage of time the car was off the shortline earning per diem. Because the single door cars were a pain in the rear on the west coast, the western roads took action and loaded them to Mexico as much as they could, where they earned less per diem, to discourage NRUC from finding loads to send them out west. NRUC filed an anti-trust lawsuit against the major railroads, which was settled on undisclosed terms. SSI Rail (which became Itel Rail) was smart and only provided enough boxcars to the participating shortlines to cover about half of their outbound loadings. Those were the really colorful ones - because the paint job went into the base cost of the car, and that increased the amount of per diem they earned. Most of SSI Rail's cars were built by FMC. The deal SSI made with the shortlines was that the shortline would get any per diem revenue in excess of 90% of time off the shortline. So the shortlines often made them to be free runners so they could wander the country. The returns that could be made just collecting the per diem rentals were phenomenal, and if you financed them you could, at that time, get a 10% investment tax credit plus accelerated depreciation to the point that returns in excess of 20% ROI were possible. Ultimately, the ICC did not account for the fact that railroads and their customers were rapidly shifting grain shipments from boxcars to easy to load and unload covered hopper cars during the '60's and '70's. So there just wasn't enough of a need for more boxcars. There's still a few of the IPD boxcars around, but they were mostly 70 ton cars, which are hardly economic anymore. But it was indeed a colorful era for the railroad industry. My favorite livery - the McCloud River railroad ones with the bear with a fish in its mouth.

This is what I love about this channel. You never know quite what you're gonna get, but it'll always be interesting. I wonder what he'll cover next. The Bopper, maybe? A boxcar that could be converted into a grain hopper?

Railbox's original livery is such an aesthetic especially as they rusted, easily my favorite IPD leasing pool livery by far.

I now have a term for the way I run my layout, IPD. Thanks AmtrakGuy 🚂🇨🇦🇺🇲

Interesting, this is something I never really knew about, I had always assumed that the railroads take the loaded boxcar to the customer and then send it back to “home rails” didn’t ever think that they continually used them over the road and I figured if they did there was a lease agreement and not just per day payment, makes a lot of sense. It’s a lot similar to how modern truck carriers operate, constantly keep their trucks and trailers moving loaded on the road

Well, this sure answered a question from my childhood. I grew up in a small railroad town, Mojave, California. Both the Southern Pacific and Santa Fe railroads pass through town with a small switching yard and scale in the middle of town. When we were kids (the early to mid 1970s) there was an unused section of track out in the desert with about a dozen boxcars sat for years. We had a blast playing on them. We didn't have iphones, Xbox, lap tops, or any of the fancy toys kids have today. We didn't need them. Heck no, we each had our own 50 foot box car. When it got over 110F in the Mojave desert, we sought refuge in our home away from home. If you didn't know the magic password, you weren't allowed in my boxcar. I always wondered why the boxcars were setting out there in the first place. And now, 50 years later, I know why. Kids today will never know the joy of having a 550sq/ft fort in the desert

The irony around the IPD cars is that what the industry really needed was a simple change in the car routing rules. In the late 1960's, an empty freight car could only be sent back to its home road in the most direct route. This meant too few of them moved loaded in both directions. When the Federal government abolished this rule, it let the freight car fleet move more freely and freight car utilization went up dramatically. Instead of freight trains moving with almost half the cars being empty, now those same cars were more often loaded. Specialization of freight cars did as much to make the IPD cars obsolete as the over building by the freight lines. The mid 70's is when the surge to transform grain movement in this really caught hold. Shippers no longer loaded grain into box cars with paper doors. They now used dedicated covered hoppers instead. Trailer Train did its part to end the practice of transferring trucked freight to boxcars and then deliver to freight houses to be trucked again. Container freight movement also expanded at this time. All combined to end the rein of the boxcar on American railroads.

I grew up in a town in far upstate NY of 1500 people. They made the blue St. Lawrence box cars there and I remember side tracks full of new box cars just sitting there... for years. I only have two pieces of my old HO train set. A Santa Fe F7 and a blue St. Lawrence box car that I found decals for and painted over an old Tyco box car back then. That was cool to learn. Thanks.

I used to see a lot of these being shuffled around between four different railroads where I used to live, and I always liked spotting the really old ones with their original paint. Probably the most interesting were a couple of IDPs lettered for the Ashley, Drew, and Northern, which I did not seriously believe was a real railroad.

It is nice to know that the railroads are still moving in America. Ships and barges are good for shipping cargo overseas, but freight railroad is better for us. Let us build in America!

Long live the Boxcar! I can't see them being completed replaced by intermodal, center beam flatcars, or the trucking industry. There will always be a need for boxcars.

I never knew about the IPD vans (British slang for boxcars) until today

Like everything in life - it just aint the same. Take railfaning - same engines -engieers who dont wave - every car is the same - no cabooses. And graffiti everywhere. Its like watching the subway go by in NYC in the 70's

Excellent summary on boxcars, in the diesel era. Gave you a thumbs up.

I met a fellow who owned over 3,000 rail cars. This was in 2004 and was doing well.

As I found these IPD cars attractive I have many on my HO layout. Now I know the real story behind them. I have many railbox cars and their gondolas too. Have to get them weathered some day.

That was a great video, excellent vintage footage and explanation. Well done. I have bookmark this.

Would love to see the history of autoracks !!

This was an interesting story., I never knew this was a thing. Nice work with this.

I really like the incredible variety of amateur provided improvised livery on those boxcars.

This was incredible! Those IPD Boxcars Looks kinda cool

Wow! Vermont Railway and Lamoille Valley, both right outside my home, thanks for including those!!

I didn't know I wanted to know about the box car industry in the 1970s... but I guess I did. And still found it interesting.

Thank you for the video , very informative. I grew up during that time. I used to love to watch freight trains back then and all the box cars with different Road names and now I know why.

Thanks, I had no idea about IPD boxcars. I was clueless.

Nice short video on these common freight cars. *DANG* that is an awesome logo in the middle at 3:46! That design deserves an award!

I recall reading that some short line railroads would have special late night runs to move their boxcars at interchange tracks so that they could charge per diem. The rail box solved this issue by not being affiliated with any particular railroad.

The slide doors always stood out to me

Thanks for the lesson. I was always interested in the wooden box cars, how the body and trucks are constructed and their size, as well as the braking technology they used. Hope you have a video somewhere on that subject.

I started my career building cars for ACF in 1973. We made different types of cars. I mainly built t.t. pigs. Enjoyed my job there.

Excellent video AmtrakGuy I really like this one ! , This video provided some interesting and useful information as I am a big fan of the 50ft IPD boxcars. I have several in HO scale. You included many good photos of different roadnames and the narrator was great. Thanks well done. 😁👍

damn 3am with no sleep really got me watching this huh

I love how Pickens had SO MANY per diem cars and SO little track.

The Lenawee County Railroad had far more than 20 of these boxcars. I believe there were 80-100.

I wish somebody would do a two-hour long documentary on IPD boxcars

Awesome video, thank you so much for sharing! I watch a good amount of streaming rail cams (mainly VRF cameras) and these IPD boxcars are one of my favorite things to watch for. It's amazing the different railroads that still have these boxcars roaming around! I've got a small stack of N scale IPD boxcars that are waiting to be patched and weathered to match the prototype, too.

England had similar setup,during WW2,as many cars were put into common user,status,and that covered,vans,opens[gondolas],and flatcars,flat cars, were so designated! The non-common user cars carried an,"N",on the Carbody,so the could be distinguished,from the common users! Most of the non-common users,were vacuum fitted vans,and specials,covering heavy well flats,and sundry grain,milk,tank cars,etc.,British Railways inherited this,and they also had a container revolution,so there are parallels,in the US,and the UK!! Thank you for the information,never knew the full story,and it's much appreciated 🙏 😊 😀 👍 ☺ 🙂!

Very interesting.

This was genuinely enjoyable. Would love more content like this

It should be noted that the boxcar is my FAVORITE TYPE OF ROLLING STOCK EVER

Nice video. Thanks for staying on track

I'm a tram and I approve this video!!

Seems the only colorful trains nowadays are the intermodal sea boxes speeding along at 70 mph.

Buster Keaton. That's the BOMB.

Always love your videos. Keep them coming!!!

Can you do an episode about the failed 90 Macs and ac6000’s? That would be interesting since it would probably get a good amount of views

This was a fascinating video. Thank you.

Terrific video! thanks for posting

One of the reasons that rail cars set unused is that the owners are claiming tax deprecation on the cars. When they have been fully deprecated then they may be scrapped but not before.

Another great video! Thank you :)

The staggers act, Deregulation, 1980 recession Had a hand in The law being changed for IP d's. Rail Box Had to sell off Some of their Box cars Back to the underwriting railroads. But this period of time was modeler's dream.

Very informative- thank you-Bob

0:53 OMG that's a lot of boxcars to order 1:43 1:44 1:46

VERY informative. Loved it 💪

That was very informative. Thank you.

Great Job on this video!!!

My favorite boxcars were the old FGE “Solid Gold” logo

Awesome Video

Awesome video friend!!

I haven't seen that Lenawee County Railroad logo in ages!

I always wondered why box cars were mixed up and not organized. But i never saw Santa Fe, BN, SP in the New England area.

Klemme Co op Grain from Klemme Iowa used to have a few pink grain hopper cars that used to float around the country. Klemme Co op went by the wayside now.

I've seen a ex-Seattle North Coast boxcar, but it wasn't just plain brown and had the interesting dark green and yellow door scheme.

The Berlin Mills Railway cars were not IPD however, they were the Brown Company's cars for their home road and purchased for dedicated paper service loading from the Berlin Mills at Berlin and Cascade, NH. Upon being unloaded at customers around the country, there were to return home for reloading. When St. Lawrence & Atlantic under G&W ownership took over operations of Berlin Mills Rwy. they were placed into the SLR's boxcar pool, and later sold off to leasing companies and a decent chunk to Vermont Railways GMRC in the mid 2000s.

Nice to see the PH&D I think CSX bought that railroad sometime in the 80's.

Really interesting

I saw a PanAm box car a month ago, taggers got to it though.

Super intersting facts..

Very interesting

This is interesting

me internally exploding because the small historical railroad near me gets referenced at 1:56

A rare Buster Keaton spotting!

More on rolling stock with attention to safety additions i.e. dot 117 tank cars etc. thanks Most of the sites seam to be focused on locomotives. There is more to railroading than engines. Thanks

I was wondering why our town is filled to the gills with Winchester and Western boxcars. That’s hundreds of miles (and three separate railroads) away.

Interesting.

I like how boxcars used to look before idiots started tagging them.

Nothing quite matches the Red White and Blue "State Of Maine" boxcar...anybody else remember?

I'm honestly kinda curious, with intermodal... What still needs to be shipped by boxcar?

For me, its McCloud River Railroad Company IPD

Even the most Basic pice of roling Stock has history and the fact that there were dedicated laws for said Rolling stock

Thank you for the Video . What about the Despatch Company ( East Rochester ) .

I live by a major train line and I haven’t seen a Bosch car in years

nice

Now most of them are owned by the major lessors, and have been patched many times.

Would intermodals be considered the modern equivalent of boxcars? At least that’s the way I see it , I love me a stack train.

Without KarTrak this wouldn't have been possible...how about a video on that?

One train contains 160 Boxcars

Is that Mario & Luigi Superstar Saga music

2:07 hell yea VTR

So Many Boxcars

First time seeing a train history channel use a png of a anime character

one of these things were in my grandma's backyard

Love me a good FMC 50 foot boxcar.

Here is an amazook box from the boxcar

can you do engines of amtrak on the amtrak flexliner that is the danish dsb ic3 train

IPD Lore

what about AutoRacks cars , Tankcar