The legend and travels of Monon Boxcar #1

The image at the left wasis taken from the pages of the Rail and Tie, newsletter of the Monon Railroad. The subject is Boxcar #1 being loaded for the first time. The location is Lewis Shephard Company, Crawfordville, Indiana. The loading of the car was properly marked by both Lewis Shephard and the Monon Railroad.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

John Barriger started his railroading career as a yard clerk. He noticed that when cars had six numerals that their was a chance to have an error in writing down the numbers on lists. So back in 1947 when the Monon ordered new boxcars, he started numbering them from # 1 on up. The 1947 purchase of 500 boxcars were in fact numbered 1 through 500. Built by Pullman-Standard and welded, were pre-PS-1 cars. Their most obvious spotting feature was their ends, which had distinctive "rolling pin" shaped ribs. Some came with Superior 7-panel doors, like on #1, others had the so-called "Youngstown" corrugated doors.

Monon boxcar #1 was built in July 1947 at Pullman-Standard's Michigan City plant. So it had "C.I.L." reporting marks, as did all MONON cars prior to 1956. The car's original "as built" paint job was a white script "The Hoosier Line" centered to the right of the door and the Loewy "speed-lettered" MONON to the left. No white band. It was apparantly repainted with the band in the mid-50's.

Traffic World Magazine Advertisement May, 1947

Traffic World Magazine Advertisement May, 1948

Trains Magazine Schedule

More Pictures of Boxcar #1..

This is just a brief look at a Monon legend. There are other pictures out and about, as well as articles. The boxcar has been very well documented in just about all forms of media. If anyone has additional pictures, information or accounts of this famous piece of Monon history and would like to share them, please contact The Webmaster.

 

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