| Prior to the doublestack era, there were many of these 86 foot auto parts box cars in service in the US. The large size was to maximize the cubic footage. Since many auto parts are light-as a truck driver, I carried many loads of plastic and fiberglass parts where I had a 53 foot trailer full to the doors with less than 10,000 lbs-these cars would cube out before they got anywhere close to weight limits, and they allowed a large quantity of product to be shipped at one time. This SP car was on the Southern Pacific near Phoenix. |