Freight Cars

This unit was used in light maintenance service. It was built byIndustrial BrownHoist.

This unit was used to spread the ballast that supports the ties and rails. “Wings” smooth the roadbed edges or can cut drainage ditches alongside the track. 

This wood car was built c. 1930 as part of special Western Union work trains to maintain extensive networks of trackside poles and lines. It was donated in 1966 and lovingly restored by volunteers, inside and out. It’s a true masterpiece.

This General American Pfaudler unit was used on the Boston & Maine Railroad under lease by H.P. Hood & Sons Dairy. Pfaudler designed what became a standard milk car with two 3,000-US-gallon tanks inside a closed car. The cars included brine coils to cool the car at the creamery, and an electric stirring mechanism to keep butterfat distributed through the milk and minimize deposition on the interior of the tank (Wikipedia) It was later used by L&N/CSX as a water car. Though a national inventory is being rebuilt, current thought holds there are 15-25 cars left in the nation.

This car was built in 1926 by Pressed Steel Car Company as a gondola, and later rebuilt as a boxcar in 1936 by SAL. It was donated in 1965.

The car was built c. 1940 and privately owned by refrigerator car leasing company Fruit Growers Express for shipment of their produce. Constructed of wood on a steel frame, the car has two bunkers, one at each end of the car, that held blocks of ice to keep the interior cool. At their peak, Fruit Growers Express owned 4,280 railroad cars, with repair operations in Alexandria, Virginia and Jacksonville, Florida. It was restored by Museum shop volunteers to a near like new condition and resides in Building 1.

This car was built in 1965 by Thrall Manufacturing of Chicago for Central of Georgia. It was donated to the Museum by Norfolk Southern in 1996. (In storage)

This hopper was built in the N&W Roanoke shops. This is one of 280 class H11A units, and was donated to the Museum by Norfolk Southern in 1996.