Pool 64, P-S 7315 Waffle Boxcar Service Routes
Questions that we commonly get from our customer’s about the Pullman-Standard (P-S) 7315 Waffle Boxcar has to do with the ‘64’ number on the ATSF, UP ‘As Delivered’ and DTI paint schemes.
The P-S 7315 Waffle Boxcars operated in equipment pools, and ‘64’ designates a specific pool—in this case, routes associated with the Ford facility in Melvindale (Detroit), MI. In addition to the paint schemes mentioned above, Norfolk & Western and Milwaukee Road also owned Pullman-Standard 7315 Waffle Boxcars stenciled for the 64 pool.
A January 1954 article from Railway Age documents Ford’s Melvindale, MI facility as a “parts consolidation facility” where OEM parts from external suppliers were warehoused. According to Mark Evans, cars assigned to Ford’s parts consolidation warehouses moved out loaded from there to the various Ford assembly plants around the US and Canada. They hauled miscellaneous small lots of auto parts that were consolidated at the facilities into carload lots for rail shipment. Some of the Ford pool codes for this service were 64, 65, 67, and 68.
Any equipment contributed to the pool is available for use across the pool. This means that all of these paint schemes were visible along service routes—regardless of who owned the rails upon which the cars traveled.
ExactRail’s Pullman-Standard 7315 Waffle Boxcar is ready and available to fill out your auto parts train!
Happy railroading!
6 Responses
Jose Gdo Alvarez M
Muy importante este articulo sobre estos coches de piscina.
Michael Corrie
very interesting imformation about the 64 pool cars
michel phlippe pitman
very instructive . Thank’s MP.
Pat Moore
Blaine…
One of the destinations for parts in this pool was the Ford assembly plant at Mahwah, New Jersey, served by the Erie Lackawanna, then Conrail. Records of Erie Lackawanna train consists show every one of the original owners of this car as having been in a train and consigned to the Mahwah Assembly plant. The cars were interchanged with the N&W at Buffalo, NY. I’m not sure what route they took on the N&W between Buffalo and Detroit (Melvindale). Once on the Erie Lackawanna, they went from Buffalo to Hornell, then across the Southern Tier to Binghamton, and then normally down the ex-Erie main across Starrucca Viaduct and down the Delaware Valley to Port Jervis, and eventually Mahwah, NJ. However, there were occasions that the cars would go down the ex-DL&W main through Scranton, PA, to Croxton, NJ, and then up to Mahwah.
So, anyone modeling the route Detroit (Melvindale)-Norfolk & Western-Bufflalo-Erie Lackawanna-Mahwah NJ should have some of these cars, at least the original owners. That would include DT&I, UP, ATSF, N&W, L&N, Milwaukee, and Southern.
Thanks to Exactrail for doing these important cars!
Steve Williams
ATSF car looks great. When are you going to produce them in N-Scale?
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Dave Palmer
August 06, 2020
Nice looking car. Were any of the 7315s in other pools besides 64? Any in GM or Chrysler service?