Bluford Shops is bringing back our popular 86’ Double Door Auto Parts Boxcars. These will include our recently improved draft gear,
magnetically operating couplers and metal wheels. The minimum radius is 11”. They also include separate wire grab irons and etched
metal platforms on the ends. The draft gear is mounted to the body but has a spring centered swing action that both resists string-lining
the train pulling through curves and resists the trucks climbing the rail during shoving moves.
These super-size boxcars were
originally built to carry high-value low-density automobile parts such as body panels and window glass to final assembly plants. Cars
were acquired in wide ranging pools including several plants and the railroads that connected them. It was common for cars to run
for months or years without traveling on their home road’s rails.
Pre-Orders will remain open at least through mid-August with
release planned sometime in the summer of 2026. MSRP: $39.95 each. Retailers take note, this is a short-discount item. Please contact
our distributors Heartland Hobby Wholesale or Walthers for details.
When traffic patterns were adjusted, some of the Ann Arbor cars were leased to Soo Line. The reporting marks were changed from AA
to SOO LINE and a “1” prefix was added to the road number but otherwise the Ann Arbor paint scheme remained intact.
86715 Ann Arbor
leased to SOO #SOO LINE 169001 $39.95
86717 Ann Arbor leased to SOO #SOO LINE 169004 $39.95
Ann Arbor ran from Toledo to Ann Arbor then on to the car ferry slips at Frankfort, Michigan thus providing a shortcut for freight
moving from the Industrial Midwest to the Northern Plains, avoiding congestion in Chicago. In 1963, control of the AA passed from
Wabash to Detroit Toledo & Ironton. It was at this time that AA adopted their compass logo, orange paint and distinctive billboard
lettering.
86710 Ann Arbor compass #AA 69012 $39.95
86711 Ann Arbor compass #AA 69006 $39.95
Burlington Northern acquired this group of auto parts boxcars in their merger with Frisco joining similar cars originally acquired
by Burlington Route. BN had the longest reach of any U.S. railroad during this period, going from Vancouver B.C. to the Florida Panhandle.
86720 Burlington Northern #BN 395090 $39.95
86721 Burlington Northern #BN 395081 $39.95
86725 Burlington Northern #BN 395089 $39.95
Not surprisingly perhaps, Conrail had the largest fleet of auto parts boxcars and this group of relatively early repaints featured
the largest Conrail logo used on any equipment on the system. The placement of the CONRAIL name and the arrangement of the road number
and data varied from car to car and this practice is replicated on the 3 road numbers presented here.
86730 Conrail super-logo
#CR 237845 $39.95
86731 Conrail super-logo #CR 237972 $39.95
86735 Conrail super-logo #CR 238234 $39.95
We now skip ahead a quarter of a century. Conrail adopted a more practical logo size and launched their Conrail Quality program. Then
in 1999, Conrail was split between Norfolk Southern and CSX. Cars going to CSX had their reporting marks changed to NYC while NS bound
cars kept their CR reporting marks. Then in 2005, yellow reflector stripes began to appear on rolling stock. It is during this period
that we depict this group of cars.
86740 Conrail Quality w/yellow stripes #CR 237939 $39.95
86741 Conrail Quality w/yellow stripes #CR 237960 $39.95
86745 Conrail
Quality w/yellow stripes #CR 237967 $39.95
86747 Conrail Quality w/yellow stripes #CR 237998 $39.95
This group of flashy cars was delivered to Cotton Belt by Pullman Standard in 1967. Cotton Belt’s parent Southern Pacific made sure
they got top billing in this paint scheme. In keeping with the pooling nature of the auto parts car fleet, this group was initially
assigned for loading on the New York Central in Buffalo, New York.
86750 Cotton Belt as delivered #SSW 65063 $39.95
86751 Cotton Belt as delivered #SSW 65051 $39.95
86755 Cotton Belt as delivered #SSW
65045 $39.95
86757 Cotton Belt as delivered #SSW 65070 $39.95
Detroit Toledo & Ironton color coded their freight cars that were in assigned service. 86’ boxcars could be found in Sky Blue,
Cypress Green and as presented in this run, Magenta. In 1983 these cars joined the Grand Trunk Western fleet when the GTW merged the
DT&I.
86760 Detroit Toledo & Ironton magenta #DTI 26895 $39.95
86761 Detroit
Toledo & Ironton magenta #DTI 26892 $39.95
86765 Detroit Toledo & Ironton magenta #DTI
26886 $39.95
86767 Detroit Toledo & Ironton magenta #DTI 26899 $39.95
Erie Lackawanna had an impressive 261 car fleet of 86’ double door auto parts boxcars. This group was delivered in 1965 and initially
assigned for loading on the Chicago Heights Terminal & Transfer, a subsidiary of Chicago & Eastern Illinois. For this run,
we present them as they appeared after 1967 with their ACI tags.
86770 Erie Lackawanna post-'67 #EL 92052 $39.95
86771 Erie Lackawanna post-'67 #EL 92070 $39.95
86775 Erie Lackawanna post-'67 #EL 92094 $39.95
The 7,100 mile Illinois Central Gulf system was well placed to handle lucrative auto parts traffic between the Upper Midwest
and the Sun Belt resulting in ICG’s colorful contributions to their operating pools. The capacity of these cars varied by assignment
from a paltry 68,000 pounds to this group of 149,000 pound capacity cars.
86780 Illinois Central Gulf orange #ICG 680108 $39.95
86781 Illinois Central Gulf orange #ICG 680131 $39.95
86785 Illinois Central Gulf orange #ICG 680124 $39.95
Missouri-Kansas-Texas took delivery of this group of cars in 1965 during the railroad’s troubled Deramus era. They were initially
assigned for loading at a Ford plant on the Wabash in Buffalo, New York.
86790 Missouri-Kansas-Texas Deramus Red #MKT 8504 $39.95
86791 Missouri-Kansas-Texas Deramus Red #MKT 8500 $39.95
86795 Missouri-Kansas-Texas Deramus Red #MKT 8502 $39.95
Santa Fe received this group from Pullman Standard in 1967. They were initially assigned for loading at a Ford stamping plant on the
New York Central at Monroe, Michigan. Many years later, Santa Fe would grow to regret the “AUTO PARTS” lettering for security reasons
and began to patch them out.
86820 Santa Fe AUTO PARTS #ATSF 36716 $39.95
86821 Santa
Fe AUTO PARTS #ATSF 36711 $39.95
86825 Santa Fe AUTO PARTS #ATSF 36713 $39.95
New York Central’s fleet of 86’ boxcars was gargantuan in every measure. This group of 70-ton capacity cars was delivered in the summer
of ’67. These had smaller logos than earlier deliveries. They could be found in original paint through the early Conrail years.
86800 New York Central - version 2 #NYC 67672 $39.95
86801 New York
Central - version 2 #NYC 67649 $39.95
86805 New York Central
- version 2 #NYC 67683 $39.95
86807 New York Central - version 2 #NYC 67656 $39.95
Pennsylvania Railroad took delivery of 150 70-ton cars in 1964. The black ends add an extra touch of class but were actually the result
of a clerical error. The ends were supposed to be the same red as the sides. PRR accepted them anyway and subsequent orders came with
red ends.
86810 Pennsylvania black ends #PRR 110324 $39.95
86811 Pennsylvania black ends #PRR 110178 $39.95
86815 Pennsylvania black ends #PRR 110246 $39.95
86817 Pennsylvania black ends #PRR 110219 $39.95
In 1980 under the Clayton administration, Southern Railway adopted a thinner profile lettering on freight cars and cabooses. Although
it spread quickly, the transition was far from complete before this paint scheme was also replaced by the new Norfolk Southen image.
Nonetheless, cars in this scheme remain in service today.
86830 Southern Railway - Claytor scheme #SOU 42427 $39.95
86831 Southern Railway - Claytor scheme #SOU 42460 $39.95
86835 Southern Railway - Claytor scheme #SOU 42488 $39.95
Following the 1982 acquisition of Western Pacific by Union Pacific, much of the WP freight car fleet retained their original road
numbers and WP reporting marks even as the cars were repainted. It was an easy way to avoid conflicting road number series and it
also elimenated the need to amend equipment trusts. In the case of these auto parts cars, it avoided any confusion as to what cars
belonged to what pools.
86840 Union Pacific (WP) #WP 86076 $39.95
86841 Union Pacific (WP) #WP 86068 $39.95
86845 Union Pacific (WP) #WP 86074 $39.95
86847 Union Pacific (WP) #WP 86057 $39.95