Santa Fe Boxcar 277144
Initially chartered in 1859 at a small office in Atchison, Kansas, as the Atchison & Topeka Railroad, ground was eventually broken in Topeka at the end of October 1868 for the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad (AT&SF or Santa Fe). During the 127 years of operation prior to its 1995/1996 merger with Burlington Northern Railroad, Santa Fe bought, built, leased and operated tens of thousands of boxcars on a system that stretched from Chicago to California and down to the Gulf of Mexico in Texas. It handled many additional boxcars owned by other railroads.
Boxcars were utilitarian and, as the name implies, they were wooden, and later steel, boxes on wheels. Over time, their versatility enabled boxcars to be used for the transport of virtually everything from grain to lumber, automobiles to furniture, clothing to aircraft, home appliances to hardware and so much more. Refrigerated and insulated versions were developed to transport perishable foods such as fruit and vegetables from California, meat from packing plants, beer and wine, freshly caught fish and even eggs. Early wooden Santa Fe boxcars were less than 40 feet in length, while some steel specialty boxcars that eventually transported manufactured items such as automobile frames were nearly 90 feet long.
Santa Fe boxcar 277144 is one of 500 in the Bx-151 class that were created from three other classes (Bx-60, Bx-62 and Bx-63 boxcars) during a 1972 rebuilding program at the railroad’s Topeka, Kansas, shops. These are non-insulated, 40-foot, basic boxcars with a load capacity of 55 tons (110,000 lbs.). After being rebuilt, they served Santa Fe for another dozen years before being retired from the company’s freight car roster in 1984.
Santa Fe used a simple system for differentiating types of cars in its freight fleet by using the first and last letter of the type of car, followed by a class number. Here are a few examples:
Box cars: Bx
Caboose cars: CE
Tank cars: TK
Flat cars: FT
Gondola cars (includes all hopper cars): GA
Refrigerator boxcars: RR
Furniture boxcars: FE
Stock cars (for livestock): SK