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Union Pacific Boxcar #462536 is a modern 50-foot Plain Boxcar.
Dimensions are approximately 60-feet long, 14-feet high (from rails), and 9’-6” wide.
The boxcar is one of many railroad cars classified as “freight” cars; others include gondolas, tankers, hoppers, and flatcars. Some specialized boxcars are outfitted to carry perishable goods (fresh vegetables, dairy, etc.) These are refrigerated, and often called “reefers.”
Boxcars carried all sorts of things from TVs to shoes. There would be many boxcars per freight train (amongst other freight cars mentioned above).
The Boxcar
A boxcar is the North American term for a railroad car that is enclosed and generally used to carry freight. The boxcar, while not the simplest freight car design, is considered one of the most versatile since it can carry most loads. Boxcars have side sliding doors of varying size and operation, and some include end doors and adjustable bulkheads to load very large item
Boxcars can carry most kinds of freight. Originally they were hand-loaded, but in more recent years mechanical assistance such as forklifts 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 container shipping. Effectively a boxcar without the wheels and chassis, a container is designed to be amenable to intermodal freight transport, whether by container ships, trucks or flatcars, and can be delivered door-to-door.
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.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boxcar]
The boxcar as “transport” for hoboes or drifters
The origin of the term “hobo” is unknown. ... Author Todd DePastino notes that some have said that it derives from the term "hoe-boy", coming from the hoe they are using and meaning "farmhand", or a greeting such as "Ho, boy" ... Bill Bryson suggests in Made in America (1998) that it could either come from the railroad greeting, "Ho, beau!" or a syllabic abbreviation of "homeward bound". It could also come from the words "homeless boy" ...
Common lore in America has hoboes “hopping” trains. Although men (and boys) rode most freight cars, the boxcar was preferred, as it offered shelter, and was much safer.
While drifters have always existed in human society, the term “hobo” became common only after the broad adoption of railroads, a means of free travel for those willing, often out of financial constraints, to hop aboard train cars furtively in violation of the law.
Life as a hobo was dangerous. In addition to the problems of being itinerant, poor, and far from home and support, plus the hostility of many train crews, they faced the railroad police, nicknamed "bulls," who had a reputation of violence against trespassers. Moreover, riding on a freight train is dangerous in itself.
British poet W. H. Davies, author of The Autobiography of a Super-Tramp, lost a foot when he fell under the wheels when trying to jump aboard a train. It was easy to be trapped between cars, and one could freeze to death in cold weather. When freezer cars were loaded at an ice factory, any hobo inside was likely to be killed.
Around the end of World War II, railroads began to move from steam to diesel locomotives, making jumping freight trains more difficult [due primarily to the increased speed of trains]. This, in combination with increased postwar prosperity, led to a decline in the number of hoboes. In the 1970s and 1980s hobo numbers were augmented by returning Vietnam War veterans, many of whom were disillusioned with settled society.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hobo]
Notable Midwestern Hoboes
Iowa: Richard “Pennsylvania Kid” Wilson
The Pennsylvania Kid was born Richard (or Paul) Wilson in Franklin, Pennsylvania, in 1911, but no month or day was given. He was raised in a foster home after his father abandoned his mother and five children, and was partially crippled with a club foot, but had surgery which enabled him to walk. Separated from his siblings and unhappy, he decided to hit the rails; he said he left home in 1927 just after finishing the 8th grade and was on the road for over 50 years. He traveled all over working mostly odd jobs such as bartending, welding, cement work, “just about everything” he said.
The Pennsylvania Kid began attending the hobo convention at Britt, Iowa regularly since 1961. He was elected Hobo King in 1963; and again in 1966, 1968, and 1971. Hobos have convened in Britt since 1900 for the National Hobo Convention, which celebrates the history of hobos and their way of life through contests, craft shows, communal eating, and a parade.
The Pennsylvania Kid holds the distinction of being the most frequent resident of Pottawattamie County's "Squirrel Cage" jail. Most of his arrests were for vagrancy and train hopping.
[http://hoboarchive.lib.uiowa.edu/items/show/591] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Britt,_Iowa] [Tales From the Cells, Ryan Roenfeld and Richard Warner
Today the National Hobo Museum is owned and operated by the Britt Hobo Days Association, a non-profit group dedicated to hosting the annual National Hobo Convention and preserving the history of the life and times of the American Hobo. The museum boasts a vast collection of authentic artifacts, memorabilia, paintings, photographs and much more. Additionally, the collection tells the century long story of the National Hobo Convention and showcases personal collections of many of the more notable American hobos including Steam Train Maury, the Pennsylvania Kid, Connecticut Slim, the Hard Rock Kid, Frisco Jack and others.
[https://www.britthobodays.com/hobo-museum]
Nebraska: “Boxcar Willie”
Lecil Travis Martin (September 1, 1931 – April 12, 1999), whose stage name was Boxcar Willie, was an American country music singer-songwriter, who sang in the "old-time hobo" music style, complete with overalls, and a floppy hat. "Boxcar Willie" was originally a character in a ballad he wrote, but he later adopted it as his own stage name.
In Lincoln, Nebraska, [ca. 1950s] Martin was once sitting at a railroad crossing and a fellow that closely resembled his chief boom operator, Willie Wilson, passed by sitting in a boxcar. He said, "There goes Willie." He pulled over and wrote a song entitled "Boxcar Willie". It eventually stuck and became Martin's nickname.
(Page created by HSPC member Mark Chavez)
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