RailBox Company

RailBox Company (reporting marks ABOX, RBOX, TBOX, FBOX), founded in 1974, was created to address a boxcar shortage in the United States in the 1970s. It was a subsidiary of the Chicago-based TrailerTrain (now known as TTX).

The concept behind RailBox, as evidenced by the slogan, "Next Load, Any Road!" was, because RailBox was joint-owned by many of the railroads as a privately-owned cooperative, these boxcars were not subject to load/empty rules. RailBox cars could be assigned for service on any railroad in Canada, Mexico, and the United States on lines where an AAR Plate-C loading gauge is permitted. RailBox purchased boxcars from many manufacturers, including American Car and Foundry (ACF), Food Machinery & Chemicals (FMC), and Pullman-Standard (P-S).

Subject ID: 13912

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RailBox Company (reporting marks ABOX, RBOX, TBOX, FBOX), founded in 1974, was created to address a boxcar shortage in the United States in the 1970s. It was a subsidiary of the Chicago-based TrailerTrain (now known as TTX).

The concept behind RailBox, as evidenced by the slogan, "Next Load, Any Road!" was, because RailBox was joint-owned by many of the railroads as a privately-owned cooperative, these boxcars were not subject to load/empty rules. RailBox cars could be assigned for service on any railroad in Canada, Mexico, and the United States on lines where an AAR Plate-C loading gauge is permitted. RailBox purchased boxcars from many manufacturers, including American Car and Foundry (ACF), Food Machinery & Chemicals (FMC), and Pullman-Standard (P-S).

According to the ICC car routing rules in effect at the time, cars owned by the various railroads were required to be routed back to their host road as soon as possible; if not, the host road had to pay demurrage (car storage and handling) charges. This often caused a shortage of boxcars available to each operator generally, not an actual numerical shortage of boxcars. ICC rules required empty cars to be routed back to their respective home railroads rather than being loaded and backhauled to another destination.

Subject ID: 13912

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