railroad boxcar weight?

[Natman]

Any guesstimates? No axles , wheels etc. Older ones, appear to be the common height and width.

I was doing an HVAC job and a lady who worked in the building came down and said her and her husband had just bought a place and wanted them outa there, there are two of them. I'm thinking the 80 ton Terex I have access to, and the right trucker, may be cost effective. All we need additional is a farmer or rancher who is looking to buy them/take them, or we can always deliver then right to the scrap yard.

 

[Old Doug]

There not very heavy dad has a box car and a caboose, The box car was lifted one end at a time buy a 12 ton crane. The caboose was turned on its side because of the height. The best way is to jack it up and back under them. I wish i had pic but i saw a caboose with a dolly axle bolted to the back and a pintle hitch on the front. The box car needs moved agin because its on the farm he owns on his land but close to the first house he built and sold. I worked at a rail car shop and did know but i cant remember i know were there are 3 that could be bought but unless i could move them my self i can find cheaper storage.

 

[skyking1]

Depending on the age of them, they may have a tare weight tag just like a container. Find out the typical weight of the trucks and subtract that for a pretty close estimate.

 

[crane operator]

I did a caboose years back that was around 40,000lbs. I looked at a big caboose that they were telling me was 60,000lbs- but I never went and lifted it. I've never done a boxcar.

I think it all depends on the era it was built in, and how many layers of 1" oak are in the walls. Some of the old stuff is all hot rivet construction and super heavy undercarriage. No trucks would help with the weight. The passenger rail trucks we do are around 10k each.

The passenger rail cars I do at the local senic railroad are around 30-40k lifting one end, to replace trucks. But those are long cars.

The biggest problem with most, is getting ahold of them. Most have jack points on each side about where the trucks are. But they are usually so far underneath that its tough without bars below and above. I've lifted them by the coupler also, but in display ones, the couplers are quite often gone.

You are correct, in that two cranes is the way to go, one on each end, pick straight up and back the truck under.

 

[Natman]

Good info, all I've done so far is fly over where they're at, and the access to them seems reasonable. If nothing else, I'd figure how much bigger than a Conex box they are, do the math, and then add maybe 20%. It's an area that not too long ago was hicksville, now being bought up by well to do yuppies, it will be interesting to see how bad they want to get rid of them, probably need the room to park their Range Rover.