GAEX "Shippers Delight" Boxcars

Greetings All,

A recent purchase on ebay of a used three boxcar lot has lead to some interesting background information on the prototype cars. 

An April 22, 1950 article in Railway Age magazine titled "Shippers Delight Boxcar" described the unique building and leasing agreements being proposed by newly formed corporation General American - Evans Company of Chicago. The brand new lease agreement to railroads would make available to shippers a nationwide pool of versatile boxcars with the latest design and specialty features for damage free high speed carriage of freight previously lost to trucks.

The boxcars were offered to trunk line railroads on a ten year lease using mileage charges differing from the standard per diem charges of the day. G.A.E. would monitor and divert cars from railroad to railroad according to system shortages and surpluses. The boxcars,  assigned GAEX reporting marks, are painted green with the leasing railroad's name placarded on the side.

GAEX 100022 is one of 110 such cars leased to the PRR. Painted in the as delivered 1950 scheme this is an Athearn BB model painted and sold by Branchline Trains.

The "Shippers Delight Boxcars' were intended to match mettle with highway trucks. They were not intended to be thrown out into the field for general freight traffic, nor to replace the country's boxcar fleet. The DF car is designed for the heavy loading of high revenue products from manufacturers, in particular those vulnerable to highway competition.

The GAEX boxcars have been offered in models of all scales. In HO scale Branchline and Roundhouse released GAEX boxcars in both lease and railroad owned paint schemes.


The PRR purchased a total of 150 ex GAEX cars numbered 47100 - 47249. This car is also an Athearn BB car painted and sold by Branchline Trains.

The Branchline painted Athearn BB cars with their sliding doors seem to be good representatives of the 1950 built cars.

This prototype photo shows Penn Central Boxcar #264654 which was sold to the PRR at lease end,  painted by GAEX and received new reporting marks after the NYC-PRR merger. For the merger these boxcars were renumbered from the PRR 47100 - 47249 series to the Penn Central 264651 - 264789 series. 

PC 264765 below is a Roundhouse model with a similar paint job but different door which is slightly bigger than the Athearn cars.

The Green Bay and Western RR rostered ten GAEX cars numbered 11200 - 11209. These cars were sold to the GBW and pretty much repainted as seen below on GBW 112005. 

 GBW ORER  has the ten GBW cars numbered 112001 - 112012. GBW 112010 would fall within that range. 

Check these links for before and after photos of GAEX 11208 and GBW 11208. 

The trio of ex GAEX cars have been shoved into the Terminal Warehouse & Cold Storage Building #1 siding with another load of damaged free merchandise.

I really like the eye catching paint schemes on these cars and researching the prototype info was an enjoyable endeavor. That's a model railroading win-win for me. 

As for the Roundhouse models, they came with Kadee #5 couplers installed. I've added Intermountain metal wheelsets which made them extremely free rolling.  

More information on these car can be found on Rob's PRR railfan page . TrainLife members can access the Railmodel Journal four part series on these cars starting in March 1990 on page 44.

Thanks for reading!!!

See ya soon!!!