They range from 8 to 11 or 12 ft high inside, from 39 to 40 ft long inside and from 9 to 10 ft wide inside. They made 40 ft boxcars for over 75 years.

The present day name of the “Forty and Eight car” was derived from the wartime capacity of the car dictated by the French military of “Hommes 40. Chevax 8,” meaning it could hold forty men or eight horses. Built in France between 1872 and 1885, the wooden boxcar measures twenty-nine feet long by nine feet