Greetings all.
Freight Car Spotlight
State of Maine Products Boxcars
Welcome to another installment of the Freight Car Spotlight series. Today the spotlight will shine on the "State of Maine Products" boxcars.
Prototype Information
The iconic "State of Maine Products" red, white, and blue boxcars were introduced by the Bangor and Aroostook Railroad (BAR) in October 1950 as a bold marketing campaign to promote Maine goods nationwide.
According to American Rails the company built about 500 insulated refrigerator cars in 1950 and painted them red, white, and blue with STATE OF MAINE PRODUCTS along the side. Potatoes needed a steady 40 degrees.
The BAR, for a time, owned the second-largest railroad reefer fleet in the country after the Santa Fe. In the off months the cars went west.
Pacific Fruit Express used BAR reefers on California produce while PFE cars came east for the potato season.
Lionel put the scheme under Christmas trees. The cars made the Maine railroad famous in far away places. According to Wikipedia the BAR painted 2,500 boxcars in this scheme during the 1950s.
The cars featured a striking horizontal tri-color design with a blue top third, a white middle stripe, and a red bottom third. The very first cars introduced the text "State of Maine Potatoes" before quickly transitioning to the broader "State of Maine Products" to encompass paper and other freight. Early versions also spelled out "Bangor and Aroostook Railroad," which was later shortened on the graphics.
Primarily used as heated or insulated reefers for Aroostook County potatoes during the winter harvest, they hauled newsprint and paper products during the rest of the year.
While primarily a BAR flagship fleet, the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad also purchased a small number of identically painted cars to handle heavy overhead paper and freight traffic moving through New England. Decades later, the Montreal, Maine and Atlantic Railway painted a few cars in the scheme as a tribute.
AAR Mechanical Designation
Association of American Railroads (AAR) Mechanical Designation XMIH is what many of the State of Maine Products boxcars were listed as.
X-Boxcar, M-General Merchandise, I-Insulated, H-Heater
The Penn Central Potato Disaster
The Penn Central Transportation Company potato incident in 1969 involved a massive operational failure where a large portion of Maine’s potato harvest rotted in the Selkirk Yard near Albany, New York, because the railroad lost track of the cars and failed to maintain their climate control heaters.
The 1968 merger of the Pennsylvania Railroad and the New York Central created incompatible computer tracking systems, causing freight cars to get lost for weeks. During the winter of 1969–1970, refrigerated potato cars (reefers) sat unrouted in Selkirk Yard while their fuel ran out, freezing and then rotting the crops. The disaster was only realized when the severe smell and rot were finally uncovered.
.png)
Furious potato farmers and shippers vowed never to use the railroad again, permanently shifting their business to trucks on Interstate 95. The loss of revenue bankrupted several local farms and dealt a severe financial blow to connecting lines like the Bangor and Aroostook Railroad.
The logistical disaster symbolized the broader chaos inside the company, contributing to Penn Central filing for bankruptcy in June 1970—the largest corporate bankruptcy in U.S. history at the time.
Model Information
The red, white and blue paint scheme achieved legendary status after being mass-produced by model train makers like Lionel (6464-275) and American Flyer, cementing the red, white, and blue cars in American pop culture and under countless Christmas trees.
The HO Scale BAR boxcars below are Athearn products that were painted and lettered by the Bev-Bel Company. These cars have been in the fleet for a couple of years.
NH 45039 is an Athearn Blue Box Product painted and lettered by the Bev-Bel Corp. This is a recent purchase from a Buford, GA Antique Mall. The NH had 100 of these cars (45000-45099 on their roster built by Pacific Car and Foundry in June and July 1953.
The BB boxes with their prices.
BAR 50' boxcar 6379 is factory painted Athearn BB Product as noted above. This is another recent purchase from the Antique Mall.
Additional Thoughts and Comments
The BAR & NH State of Maine Products boxcars definitely stand out adding a touch of patriotic color and notoriety to the layout. As a Penn Central fan with much PC equipment the potato debacle is never mentioned when running the layout but it does hang over the operations every time I run these boxcars. To alleviate the negativity I've opted for the 40' boxcars to mostly carry blueberries instead of potatoes. The 50' newsprint boxcar carries that commodity exclusively.
Comparing the Athearn models to the prototype BAR / NH 40' boxcars there are several discrepancies. The prototype featured plug doors with vents to the left and right of the door along with a heater slung underneath the car. Check the BAR 2227 link below for a good photo of the prototype.
After the New Haven inclusion into the Penn Central the State of Maine Products boxcars were painted in the standard PC green and renumbered 350500-350592. Some if not all of these cars could be found assigned to the PC at Buffalo, NY for flour loading.
Additional Sources and Links
BAR XMIH #2024 February 1965
BAR #2225 May 1964
BAR #6382 April, 1964
NH #45085 May, 1960
BAR #2227 May 1965
"State of Maine Products" Google Search
Penn Central Potato Incident Google Search
BAR Wikipedia Page
American Rails BAR page
Thanks for reading!!!
See you soon!!!
