| All-Door Boxcar Demonstrator built by Thrall in 1971. The following is from museum signage about this car: "Boxcars made up the largest portion of most railroads freight car fleets until near the end of the Twentieth Century. They were used to carry almost any type of non-perishable solid cargo, ranging from cartons, crates, and bags of merchandise to complete automobiles and loose grain. Due to its length, lumber is difficult to load through the doors of a standard boxcar except by hand, a few pieces at a time. Thrall developed the All-Door steel boxcar in 1967 specifically for shipment of wood products. Each car side has a pair of 25 wide doors, permitting bundles of lumber and materials such as plywood to be loaded by forklift. TCAX 20306 was retired in 1995. It was refurbished and donated to IRM by the GE Capital Railcar in 1998, and is operational.” |