Boxcar
A boxcar is an enclosed railway freight car used for general merchandise: paper rolls, packaged goods, lumber, machinery. A modern boxcar typically holds 200,000 lb or more of payload.
Standard boxcars come in 50-foot, 60-foot, and high-cube variants. The high-cube has a taller interior to accommodate roll paper or other tall, lightweight loads efficiently. Doors are sliding plug doors that seal against the door frame to keep moisture and contaminants out in transit.
Every boxcar carries a 'reporting mark' — a 2-to-4 letter prefix indicating the owning railroad or leasing company — followed by a number. Joining the mark and the number gives a globally unique car ID used across rail manifests and customer receiving systems.
Roll paper is one of the largest uses of boxcars in North America. A 50-foot boxcar typically holds 18 to 24 paper rolls depending on roll diameter and how they're loaded (eye-to-side or eye-to-sky).
Related terms
- FlatcarA flatcar is an open railway car with a flat deck and no sides or top, used for outsized loads — machinery, lumber, military equipment, and shipping containers in intermodal service.
- IntermodalIntermodal shipping uses a standard container moved by two or more transport modes — typically ship, rail, and truck — without unloading the cargo at the transfer points. The container is the persistent unit of movement.
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