X23 Series Box Car Information for Modelers

Rapido X23 (test shots)

The class X23 box car was adopted by the Pennsylvania Railroad as a standard boxcar in 1912. It was their first 40-foot standard box car (nominal length), and was also their first built with a steel underframe, steel body framing and wood sheathing. Technically it was known as a composite single-sheathed house car. It was also the first PRR box car to be built using a combined alpha-numeric designation as all previous PRR box car classes had been identified using only alphabetical characters (XA through XL).

The class X23, as built, had a light weight of about 48,000-pounds, a nominal capacity of 100,000 pounds and a cubic capacity of 2,682-cubic feet. The first car (PRR 40001) was built by the railroad’s Altoona Car Shops and was placed in service during November 1912. Between November 1912, and December 1915, when the last car was completed, 6,911 class X23 box cars had been built by five different organizations. The railroad had built 1,011 cars at its Altoona Car Shops, the Pressed Steel Car Company had built 3,000 cars at its McKees Rocks plant, the Western Steel Car & Foundry Company had built 1,700 at its Hegewisch plant, the American Car & Foundry Company had built 600 at its Berwick plant and the Standard Steel Car Company had built 600 cars at its Butler plant.

The basic configuration of the X23 boxcar was also the basis for the class R7 refrigerator car, of which the PRR had 3,304, the class class K7 stockcar of which the PRR had 25, and the class class X24 automobile car, of which the PRR had 2,000.

Over the years various improvements were made including replacing the original roof with a lap-seam roof, 2D-F8 cast trucks replacing the original arch-bar trucks, KD-Brakes being upgraded with AB-brakes, and the 3-panel Creco door being replaced with a Youngstown corrugated door.

In 1943, during World War II, the PRR was experiencing a shortage of cabin cars (cabin car is a PRR term for caboose ) so 75 class X-23 box cars were converted to cabin cars and designated as class NX23.

As the class X23’s began to fall out of favor for revenue uses because of age, having been replaced by more modern all steel cars with greater load carrying capacities, they began being removed from revenue service. Many of these now out of service cars were transferred to work equipment service (X23 Series Camp Car Information for Modelers). When the shortage of cabin cars was relieved, also by the delivery of newer cars, many class NX23 cabins were also reassigned to work equipment service over a period of time. Interestingly, two class NX23 cabins actually remained on the freight car roster into the Penn Central era.

Most of the class X23 box cars converted to work equipment service were designated as "Tool and Supply", "Tool and Material" or "Supply" cars. The conversion from revenue to work equipment service included the installation of end doors and four rectangular windows on each side of the car. This was the most typical configuration. However, the class NX23 cabins that were converted to work equipment retained the porthole style windows. These tool, material and supply cars were a general-purpose car designed to be used for a variety of maintenance related tasks. Many of these cars lasted well into the 1960s and 1970s in their work equipment status.

Overview of Sub-Classes

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Cars on the PRR roster (as listed in the Official Railway Equipment Register (ORER)):

Types of Trucks Used

The X23 has been produced in HO scale by Overland (brass), Rail Classics (brass), Rapido, and Westerfield (resin kit). The X23B has been produced in HO scale by Funaro & Camerlengo.

Mount Vernon Shops offers decals for MoW service.