RR Boxcar for delivering Fire Apparatus - 1947

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Here is Youngstown, Ohio's American LaFrance JOX Aerial being unloaded from the boxcar:

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Note: This is not the same boxcar as the original one posted.  If you will note the first one is more of the traditional square construction for box cars.  This one is what was called a wagon top due to the curvature of the top that represented the look of a horse wagon.  The Baltimore & Ohio and Pennsylvania were big users of this design. 

 

Also of note is that the modern railroad car used to deliver automobiles today did not come around until the 1960's.  Enclosed versions did not appear until the late 70's.  Auto's were delivered in box cars like those shown above when the auto craze kicked off and remained that way until the first auto racks were designed in the 1950's.

 

From my minor research it seems like most fire apparatus delivered to customers over a few hundred miles from the plant traveled by boxcar until the 50's.  By the mid 1950's it seems most deliveries were handled over the road.

 

Kris