Straight Map with 1940 CHIEF slogan

Santa Fe's Bx-37 class box cars were built by Pullman in 1941-'42 and numbered 141301-144310 and 145500-147499. They were AAR alternate standard steel box cars with 10'4" inside height, 5-5 Dreadnaught ends with W-section corner posts, and Youngstown corrugated doors. Air brake reservoirs were mounted transversely instead of parallel to the center sills and Royal Type F brake regulators were installed; hand brakes were Ajax.

When new the Bx-37s were painted mineral brown with black underframes and trucks and white stenciling. Roofs (but not running boards) were coated with gritty black anti-slip car cement. Stenciling consisted of late style straight line maps with the word "Ship" on the right side and one of .ve advertising slogans on the left: Scout, Grand Canyon Line, El Capitan, Super Chief, and Chief. Slogan assignments, where known, were:

When repainted, they were entirely mineral brown, including underframes and trucks, except for gritty car cement on the roofs, black before the mid-'50s and mineral brown later. Starting in 1947, stenciling included "Ship and Travel Santa Fe All the Way" on the right sides and one of four slogans on the left: Grand Canyon Line, El Capitan, Super Chief, or Chief. Two additional slogans were added later, Texas Chief in 1948 and San Francisco Chief in 1954. Also, after 1954 the words "All Pullman" were deleted from the Chief slogan. Beginning in 1959, the gritty anti-slip roof coating was dropped and giant herald stenciling was adopted on both sides of the cars. (Note: see Protocraft decal sheets ATSF Bx-37-2 and 3 for repaint lettering)

Starting in the mid-'50s, placard boards on the doors were lowered, and in the '60s when cars came into the shops for major repairs and repainting, running boards were removed and A end ladders were shortened. Richard Hendrickson