SAL 134xx series wooden boxcars

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Last night my wife and I ate at a restaurant in downtown Gaineseville. It's located in a old building in the heart of historic Gainesville. The eatery had old photos on the wall. One photo was captioned "oxen team hauling logs at South Main Street circa 1890s." In the background was a wooden boxcar with wood doors and ends. The reporting marks were "SEABOARD" not SAL and the number was 13488 I think. The last two digits were blurry. The SAL didn't really come i into existence until 1900. Anyone know anything about this boxcar?

-- Richard Stallworth (ThisIsR@aol.com), December 17, 2000

Answers

Here is some additional information regarding my previous posting on this subject. In the August 1892 OFFICIAL RAILWAY EQUIPMENT REGISTER under the title Seaboard Air Line(not R.R.!) there is listed the freight cars of all the SALRR predecessors. Along with those is a listing for a series of boxcars #1081-1480(400 cars) which are lettered Seaboard Air Line. Since per diem payments are directed to the Raleigh & Gaston RR, it would appear that the R&G was the legal owner of this series. This would go to explain the boxcar in the photo that Richard Stallworth chanced upon. So, YES!, there were boxcars lettered Seaboard Air Line prior to the advent of the SAL Railroad.

-- Tom Underwood (tlunder@attglobal.net), December 22, 2000.

I have seen a bill of laden from the 1890's marked Seaboard Railroad. It was for a shipment of lumber.

-- Randall Bass (Randall_Bass@despo.odedodea.edu), December 18, 2000.

Richard - This earliest listing I've found for a SAL 134xx boxcar is spring 1905 in OFFICIAL RAILWAY EQUIPMENT REGISTER. In November '04 most of the SAL listing still shows cars in predecessor reporting marks, but no 134xx boxes. From these two lists, I'd suggest that the 134xx cars are a renumbering of a predecessor series, probably about January 1905. As to the photo you saw, it was labled "circa 1890's". Someone, probably a non-railfan, made a bad guess!

-- Tom Underwood (tlunder@attglobal.net), December 18, 2000.

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