History
The 20000-20199 series 40' boxcars were leased from the Pennsylvania Railroad sometime in the late 1930's and remained on the roster until sometime in the early 1950's (there were still 177 listed in the January 1953 ORER). They were the earliest version of the X29 (Ted Culotta calls them the "1923" X29) which had flat "riveted" ends, three-panel Creco doors, two closely spaced door stops and Carmer cut levers (see the builder's photo of PRR 569091 from Robert Schoenberg's PRR Freight Car Page).
When first leased, they were assigned to auto parts service hauling axles. During the Second World War 150 cars were renumbered 18000-18149 and were reassigned to general service. By the end of the forties all the remaining cars in both number series were in general service.
Ted Culotta gave a presentation on the X28/29 and similar cars at the Ninth Annual Prototype Modelers Seminar at Naperville IL in October 2002. His handouts from the presentation are available online on the Steam Era Freight Cars website. The DT&I leased cars are mentioned in the Prototypes Document, Table of Prototypes and HO Scale Modeling Options (you will need Adobe to view these)
Information courtesy of Ted Culotta, Robert Schoenberg.
If you have additional information, corrections, photos, or diagrams you would like to have added to this page, please e-mail me.
Revenue Service Info
