B8 40 foot double sliding door box car, Vermillion, sans-serif road name

HO scale kit with trucks and couplers.

This is a 40’ double sliding door boxcar, GST B8, in Vermilion with side facing goat herald and sans-serif, or ‘Empire Builder’, lettering, car number 38706. Car body is not an accurate match for GN series 38700-38799. Stencil B47 P62 indicates built date of 1947 and paint date of 1962. The 1947 built date is not accurate because GN did not own any 40’ steel double door cars until 1955.

After World War II boxcars became more specialized. Customers demanded wider doors so that they could use fork lifts to load and unload all manner of products. Interchange list data to the CB&Q, in the 1965-1970 period, shows commodities in double door box cars included: Aluminum Ingots, Copper, Copper Bars, Ingots, Lumber, Plywood, Shakes, and Zinc (ingots).