Editing Boxcar (section)

== Use ==
[[File:Boxcar (PSF).jpg|thumb|upright|Illustration of a boxcar being unloaded by means of a [[wheelbarrow]]]]

Boxcars can carry most kinds of freight. Originally they were hand-loaded, but in more recent years mechanical assistance such as [[forklift]]s have been used to load and empty them faster. Their generalized design is still slower to load and unload than specialized designs of car, and this partially explains the decline in boxcar numbers since [[World War II]]. The other cause for this decline is the dramatic shift of waterborne [[cargo]] transport to [[Intermodal container|container]] shipping. Effectively a boxcar without the wheels and [[chassis]], a container is designed to be amenable to [[intermodal freight transport]], whether by [[container ship]]s, [[truck]]s or [[flatcar]]s, and can be delivered door-to-door.{{Citation needed|date=December 2024}}

Boxcars were used for bulk commodities such as [[coal]], particularly in the [[Midwestern United States]] in the early 20th century.  This use was sufficiently widespread that several companies developed competing box-car loaders to automate coal loading. By 1905, 350 to 400 such machines were in use, mostly at Midwestern coal mines.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Affelder |first=William L. |date=March 1905 |title=Box-Car Loaders |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wYc5AQAAIAAJ&pg=PA372 |journal=Mines and Minerals |volume=XXV |issue=8 |pages=372–377 |access-date=May 11, 2018 }}</ref>

=== Passenger use ===
In the [[Philippines]], Boxcars were used as additional third-class accommodations by the [[Manila Railroad Company|Manila Railway Company]] during the early 1900s as there was a shortage of true [[passenger railroad car]]s.<ref>{{Cite journal |title=Rolling stock of the Manila Railroad Co. 1904 |journal=Railroad Gazette |volume=35 |issue=48 |date=1903 }}</ref> These problems were considered solved by the 1910s as British manufacturer [[Metro-Cammell|Metropolitan]] and American builders such as [[Harlan and Hollingsworth]] constructed more passenger cars for the railroad.<ref>{{Cite report |title=Report of the General Manager for the Year Ended December 31, 1938 |work=Reports of the General Manager |publisher=Manila Railroad Company |date=March 17, 1939 }}</ref>

In the present day, [[hobo]]s and [[migrant worker]]s have often used boxcars in their journeys (see [[freighthopping]]), since they are enclosed and cannot be seen by [[railroad police]], as well as being to some degree insulated from cold weather.<ref>{{Cite web |date=December 19, 2012 |title=Train Hopping: Why Do Hobos Risk Their Lives to Ride the Rails? |work=BBC News |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-20756990 |access-date=June 25, 2022 }}</ref> [[Hobo code|Hobo Code]], a form of hieroglyphs used by hobos, developed as a code to give information to Hobos freighthopping.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Berendsohn |first=Roy |date=November 17, 2020 |title=Those Hobo Hieroglyphs That Appeared on Posts and Bridge Abutments Relayed Important Messages |url=https://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/a25174860/hobo-code/ |access-date=June 25, 2022 |website=Popular Mechanics }}</ref>