Operation Toy Train boxcar 2009

QUICK FACTS

Model: 57’ boxcar (originally a mechanical reefer)
Built: March 1964
Builder: Pacific Car & Foundry, Renton, WA
Past Railroad Owners: Bangor & Aroostook
Current Owner: Operation Toy Train of New York, Inc.
Current Location: Kenvil, NJ

Boxcar No. 2009 is numbered for the first year of operations for Operation Toy Train. This car was built in March of 1964 as Bangor & Aroostook No. 305 by the Pacific Car & Foundry Company at their plant in Renton, Washington. The 57-foot long, 3,970-cubic-foot capacity car was originally a mechanical reefer, used exclusively to transport frozen or refrigerated food products throughout the United States. Since it served on the Bangor & Aroostook, the car’s most likely commodity was Maine potatoes.

Around 1997, the car was acquired by Rohm & Haas and relettered as RAHX No. 91101, becoming part of the company’s “Safety Train.” In 2009, the car was conveyed to The Firefighters Education and Training Foundation of Sherborn, Massachusetts, which assigned the car to the Massachusetts Call / Volunteer Firefighters Association as training car MCVX No. 91101. It was operated out of the CSX yard in Springfield, Massachusetts. Under either RAHX or MCVX ownership, the car was converted from a mechanical reefer to a regular boxcar, while the interior was refitted as a classroom. When the car was retired from this service, The Firefighters Education and Training Foundation donated the car to Operation Toy Train in October of 2018. CSX Transportation donated all of the mechanical work to get the car roadworthy as well as the movement of the car to New Jersey.

Funding for its unique Marines-inspired paint scheme and lettering was donated by Liberty Historic Railway. The car was painted in November of 2018. It is currently stored on the Dover & Delaware River Railroad in Kenvil, NJ, where it resides between Operation Toy Train’s seasonal toy collection trains.