The Steel boxcars in the collection represent the replacement for the wood built Fowler
Patent cars. They had greater capacity and of course were much more durable and
required far less maintenance. These cars carried any kind of non-perishable product. The
Railways would accept LCL (less than carload lots) so a car could carry a variety of
goods in one car - anything from a Fisherman's boat to the new sofa ordered from
Eaton's catalogue.
Mostly though they were commodity carriers. For example the cars in our collection
could carry about 30,000 Board feet of lumber, enough to build 3 good size houses. For
comparison purposes a tractor trailer can only carry around 21,000 Board feet of lumber.
Many cars were dedicated to the grain trade. They would have their doorways boarded up
to the Load line for wheat and the grain was pumped into them. To unload, the planks
were removed and the wheat came out.
