According to the roster listed on page 209 of Mal Ferrell's Book, "Southern Pacific Narrow Gauge" these boxcars were originally constructed for the Lake Tahoe Railway & Transportation Company, arriving on the Slim Princess in 1926-1927. They bore prior the numbers 336-338 prior to the “great re-numbering” which took place 1946- 1947.

Number 17, as seen on these pages, is a 20 ton (40k lb. Capacity) car. Its prototype can be viewed at the Laws Railroad Museum in Laws, California. ( Don’t know where that is ? It’s about 6 miles east of Bishop, on US Highway 395. Though it certainly qualifies as an “out of the way” destination, the Owens Valley is really a pretty place to visit. Especially in the fall. )

Number #17 sits atop a “Modified Arch Bar” type of truck. Much heavier-duty looking than the "Thielsen" type Arch Bar Trucks for which the S.P was famous. Several other cars at the museum have this style trucks under them, so they weren’t uncommon to the operations there.

What sets this boxcar apart from many of the others we’ve seen are the huge cross members ( needle beams ) beneath it. Since these cars were built years after many of the others, it may have been that the builder observed the issues the lighter-duty cars exhibited, which same accounted for why they had only 20,000 pound gross carrying capacities, whereas these cars could haul 40,000 pounds.

Old pal Bill Schaefer built the #17 you see pictured in these pages during a visit here in December of 2003. Our thanks to him, for sure, for the help! For more, detailed information about these cars, we recommend you now pick up a copy of Mal Ferrell's Book, "Southern Pacific Narrow Gauge” printed by PFM.