View source for Boxcar

{{Short description|Enclosed railroad car used to carry freight}}
{{Other uses}}
{{Distinguish|Bockscar}}
{{About|American freight car|UIC, Australian and New Zealand railway practice|Covered goods wagon|the Wild West wagon|Covered wagon}}
{{Use American English|date=December 2024}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=December 2024}}

[[File:Box car.webp|thumb|Box car owned by [[TTX Company|TTX]]]]
[[File:Box car DSSA 18052.jpg|thumb|A wooden-bodied [[Duluth, South Shore and Atlantic Railway]] boxcar on display at the [[Mid-Continent Railway Museum]] in [[North Freedom, Wisconsin]]]]
[[File:Box car HLMX 60036 20040808.jpg|thumb|A double-door boxcar passes through [[Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin]].]]

A '''boxcar''' is the [[North America]]n ([[Association of American Railroads|AAR]]) and [[South Australian Railways]] term for a [[Railroad car#Freight cars|railroad car]] that is enclosed and generally used to carry [[freight]]. The boxcar, while not the simplest [[Railroad car#Freight cars|freight car]] design, is considered one of the most versatile since it can carry most loads. Boxcars have side [[sliding door]]s of varying size and operation, and some include end doors and adjustable [[Bulkhead (partition)|bulkheads]] to load very large items.

Similar covered freight cars outside North America are [[covered goods wagon]]s and, depending on the region, are called ''goods van'' ([[United Kingdom|UK]] and [[Australia]]), ''covered wagon'' ([[International Union of Railways|UIC]] and UK) or simply ''van'' (UIC, UK and Australia).{{Efn|An exception in Australia was the former [[South Australian Railways]], which adopted US practices and terminologies; it used the term "boxcar".<ref>{{cite conference |title=The Snowtown to Port Pirie line |first=Des |last=McAuliffe |date=1999 |book-title=Proceedings of the 1999 Convention  |location=Adelaide |conference=Modelling the Railways of South Australia }}</ref>{{Rp|1{{nbhyph}}129}}<!--A non-breaking hyphen is used here because the numerals do not represent a range of pages but one page numbered with four digits and a hyphen.-->}}

== Use ==
[[File:Boxcar (PSF).jpg|thumb|upright|Illustration of a boxcar being unloaded by means of a [[wheelbarrow]]]]

Boxcars can carry most kinds of freight. Originally they were hand-loaded, but in more recent years mechanical assistance such as [[forklift]]s have been used to load and empty them faster. Their generalized design is still slower to load and unload than specialized designs of car, and this partially explains the decline in boxcar numbers since [[World War II]]. The other cause for this decline is the dramatic shift of waterborne [[cargo]] transport to [[Intermodal container|container]] shipping. Effectively a boxcar without the wheels and [[chassis]], a container is designed to be amenable to [[intermodal freight transport]], whether by [[container ship]]s, [[truck]]s or [[flatcar]]s, and can be delivered door-to-door.{{Citation needed|date=December 2024}}

Boxcars were used for bulk commodities such as [[coal]], particularly in the [[Midwestern United States]] in the early 20th century.  This use was sufficiently widespread that several companies developed competing box-car loaders to automate coal loading. By 1905, 350 to 400 such machines were in use, mostly at Midwestern coal mines.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Affelder |first=William L. |date=March 1905 |title=Box-Car Loaders |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wYc5AQAAIAAJ&pg=PA372 |journal=Mines and Minerals |volume=XXV |issue=8 |pages=372–377 |access-date=May 11, 2018 }}</ref>

=== Passenger use ===
In the [[Philippines]], Boxcars were used as additional third-class accommodations by the [[Manila Railroad Company|Manila Railway Company]] during the early 1900s as there was a shortage of true [[passenger railroad car]]s.<ref>{{Cite journal |title=Rolling stock of the Manila Railroad Co. 1904 |journal=Railroad Gazette |volume=35 |issue=48 |date=1903 }}</ref> These problems were considered solved by the 1910s as British manufacturer [[Metro-Cammell|Metropolitan]] and American builders such as [[Harlan and Hollingsworth]] constructed more passenger cars for the railroad.<ref>{{Cite report |title=Report of the General Manager for the Year Ended December 31, 1938 |work=Reports of the General Manager |publisher=Manila Railroad Company |date=March 17, 1939 }}</ref>

In the present day, [[hobo]]s and [[migrant worker]]s have often used boxcars in their journeys (see [[freighthopping]]), since they are enclosed and cannot be seen by [[railroad police]], as well as being to some degree insulated from cold weather.<ref>{{Cite web |date=December 19, 2012 |title=Train Hopping: Why Do Hobos Risk Their Lives to Ride the Rails? |work=BBC News |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-20756990 |access-date=June 25, 2022 }}</ref> [[Hobo code|Hobo Code]], a form of hieroglyphs used by hobos, developed as a code to give information to Hobos freighthopping.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Berendsohn |first=Roy |date=November 17, 2020 |title=Those Hobo Hieroglyphs That Appeared on Posts and Bridge Abutments Relayed Important Messages |url=https://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/a25174860/hobo-code/ |access-date=June 25, 2022 |website=Popular Mechanics }}</ref>

== Hicube boxcar ==
<!-- This section is linked from [[Loading gauge]] and [[Railroad car]]. -->
In the 21st century, high cubic capacity (hicube) boxcars have become more common in the US. These are taller than regular boxcars and as such can only run on routes with increased clearance (see [[Loading gauge#North America|loading gauge]] and [[structure gauge]]). The excess height section of the car end is often painted with a white band to be easily visible if wrongly assigned to a low-clearance line.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.gbrx.com/files/files/NAR/Box_Cars/BoxCars60Auto.pdf |title=60 ft Hicube Boxcar |website=GBRX.com |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121114174030/http://www.gbrx.com/files/files/NAR/Box_Cars/BoxCars60Auto.pdf |archive-date=November 14, 2012 }}</ref>

The internal height of the {{convert|86|ft|m|2|adj=on}} hicube boxcars originally used in automotive parts service was generally {{convert|12|ft|9|in|m|2}}.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Chatfield |first=D. Scott |title=Athearn HO Scale and Arnold N Scale 86-foot Box Cars |journal=Railmodel Journal |volume=5 |issue=8 |pages=32–39 |publisher=Golden Bell Press |location=Denver, Colorado |date=January 1994 }}</ref>

== See also ==
* {{Annotated link|Autorack}}
* {{Annotated link|General Utility Van}}
* {{Annotated link|Railbox}}
* {{Annotated link|Refrigerator car}}
* {{Annotated link|Stock car (rail)|Stock car}}
* {{Annotated link|Troop sleeper}}

== Notes ==
{{Notelist}}

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

{{Freight cars}}

[[Category:Freight rolling stock]]