Per Diem Boxcras 1970's-1880's

Anyone with photos of any per-diem cars on the LIRR, for example?


LIRR #161 spotting a Pickens RR or a St. Lawrence RR per diem boxcar at M. Remz, Port Jefferson 8/04/1979car. Commonly owned, such as M&NJ, by the National Railroad Utilization Corp. The Pickens and St Lawrence cars had the word "Railroad" on the right side of the car.

Love pictures like that !!!!!! Hope to see more.

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Not per diem cars , but they capture the colorful flavor of the era:

BAR 50' boxcar with defective wheel dot at Glen Cove prior to 12/1978


DHNY "I ♥NY" Fresh Pond 9/10/1982 Photo: Art Huneke

I was able to open them in another tab. Nice first photo of Port Jeff.

I had posted regarding these cars last year. Here are the combined posts:

During the mid 1970's and into the early 1980's, the tax code provided for the purchase of new freight cars by individuals/corporations who would then rapidly depreciate them for tax purposes. It was almost a cottage industry, hence the Pt. Wash address? When the tax laws changed and removed the incentive, so did the investors. This is the rudimentary explanation. Perhaps others can fill in more fully.

The most common of these cars was the "SSI" boxcars which were orange/red.

The following is from the Washington Post article in 1978 on how the scheme worked. Pickens RR was another boxcar tax shelter too:

"Purchase of a new boxcar qualified the buyer for a federal investment tax credit amounting to 10 percent of the car's value, a direct write-off $3,000 - equal to the down payment."

"Depreciation also could be deducted from taxes; under the method used by most buyers, that amounted to a $3,000 deduction the first year. In addition-boxcars, which perennially are in short supply, are eligible for a bonus depreciation deduction the first year amounting to $2,000."

"Other expenses could be deducted, too: placement fees paid to put the car in service, management fees paid to Railvest and interest on the borrowed money; the total of these deductions varied, depending on when the car was purchased and other factors, but easily amounted to $1,000."

"Thus the $3,000 invested in a down payment immediately produced an offsetting tax credit of $3,000 and tax deductions of $6,000. The tax treatment of the boxcar investment has not been challenged by the Internal Revenue Service, several investors said."

Remember seeing at Hicksville Yard back in the mid '80s: Chessie C&O and B&O 50' boxcars with a wheel to open/close the single 10' door, as well as CN, CP Rail, D&H, GT, UP, SP, BN, N&W, NLG, NOPB, Amador Central, ADN and FEC boxcars, and many other roads. AMADOR CENTRAL !!!!! I saw two of their blue 50' double-door FMC boxcars getting unloaded by a swarm of forklifts at Medford team track on a Sunday afternoon in May, 1987. The AMC was about as far away as you could get from the LIRR, but, there they were.