Conrail Boxcar Door Colors

I am wondering what did the different color doors mean on many of the Conrail Boxcars? I have seen Yellow and Green doors on both single sliding door boxcars and on Plug Door Boxcars did these colored doors mean anything or mark cars designated for special service? If so what what were they used for??

Conrail boxcars with the yellow doors were for grain and flour loading only . I have seen many of those yellow door CR boxcars in and around the Ganson St. in Buffalo,NY I know this because I lived in HAMBURG,NY and worked in Downtown BUFFALO,NY and I took that rote to and from work Monday-Friday!

Tom

Anyone know what the Conrail Boxcars with the Green doors were used for??

While yellow door cars might have been used to transport grain & flour, I don't think their use was limited to these two. According to the Conrail Cyclopedia the significance of the door color was "clean lading only", so it was possible to find yellow door cars in various services where this was a necessity (paper, for instance)--basically anything that required a (reasonably) sanitary car interior.

Not sure on the green doors though.

James

IIRC, these yellow door boxcars were used to handle cocoa beans in "sacks" from some of the ports they served to various candy mfgs., including Hershey.

Leftover PC jade green paint getting used up.

The CR boxcars with the "yellow" doors were all xPCA X-71 & xPC X-74 models.
I saw them many times in the early 1980's down on the Chester Sec. They were used back then for paper products at Scott Paper in Chester,Pa.

Big Bri

ok so the yellow door cars are more or less for clean loading only, White doors for food stuffs. Jade green doors unknowen??

Hmm... I always assumed the differently-colored doors were due to them being scavenged from other (damaged) boxcars.

Red Arrow Fan wrote:Hmm... I always assumed the differently-colored doors were due to them being scavenged from other (damaged) boxcars.

It could be the case on some railroads. But in general most railroads will specify a car type for a specific use in this case different color doors on Boxcars might mean something on that railroad where as anouther railroad might do the samething but it could be a replacement door. I've Seen it a few times where it was a yellow car with a red door and a completley diffrent design and as is walking around to the outher side of the car would find that the outher door was yellow and more or less might be the original door that came with the car.