Description

The 1932 ARA standard box car was the watershed event in the design of house cars in North America.  While the 1932 ARA standard car has lived in the shadow of the 1937 AAR box car and its subsequent iterations, it was the box car that design that changed the course of box car engineering and set the tone for house car design for decades.  In addition, this design was developed and approved under the guidance of the Car Construction Committee of the ARA.  This genesis of the design, and subsequent acceptance by almost every Class One railroad in North America, either in the 1932 ARA or 1937 AAR forms, demonstrated that the railroads could attain consensus on standardization not only in theory, but in the reality of concrete orders for cars built to the design.

This thoroughly revised edition covers all aspects of the 1932 ARA box car.  Included are a brief history of the events leading to the design, the design process, the prototypes, testing of the design and extensive coverage of the cars as built and modified for every railroad that owned cars built to the design. Over 50 new images and several revamped drawings plus newly uncovered details included. $70.00

Cars profiled for:

• Bangor & Aroostook
• Canadian Pacific
• Central of Georgia
• Chesapeake & Ohio
• Chicago Great Western
• Clinchfield
• Delaware & Hudson
• Erie
• Gulf Mobile & Northern
• Linde
• Louisiana & Arkansas
• Maine Central
• Missouri Pacific Lines
• Mt. Vernon Car Manufacturing Co.
• Nickel Plate
• Norfolk Southern
• Nacionales de Mexico
• Seaboard Air Line
• Soo Line
• Union Pacific
• Warrior River Terminal
• Western Maryland