A boxcar is a North American railroad car that is enclosed and generally used to carry general freight. The boxcar, while not the simplest freight car design, is probably the most versatile, since it can carry most loads. Boxcars have side doors of varying size and operation, and some include end doors and adjustable bulkheads to load very large items.
Similar covered freight cars outside North America are covered goods wagons and, depending on the region, are called goods van (UK), louvre van (Australia), covered wagon (UIC and UK) or simply van (UIC and UK).
Boxcars can carry most kinds of freight. Originally they were hand-loaded, but in more recent years mechanical assistance such as forklifts 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 container shipping. Effectively a boxcar without the wheels and chassis, a container is designed to be amenable to Intermodal freight transport, whether by container ships, trucks or trains, and can be delivered door-to-door.
Boxcar is an Australian Sydney-based synthpop and techno band. Formed in the mid-1980s in Brisbane by main songwriter guitarist and vocalist David Smith, he was soon joined by keyboardists Brett Mitchell and Carol Rohde and somewhat later by drummer-percussionist Crispin Trist. They initially released several cassette-only releases including the album P.C.M.. Boxcar's early material sounded similar to contemporaries such as Cabaret Voltaire and Severed Heads. Boxcar were also notable for playing many live shows in the Brisbane area and around the country, including shows where they performed wearing gas masks. Performing electronic music live was a difficult feat given the preference in Australian live venues for guitar-driven pub rock and they would sometimes be jeered by members of the crowd.
They rose to prominence after releasing the single "Freemason (You Broke The Promise)" in 1988 after signing with Volition Records, and hit number 8 in the United States Billboard dance music chart. Initially criticised in the local press for being derivative of New Order they nevertheless built a local following, despite a lack of commercial radio airplay for electronic music. "Freemason" was soon followed by the singles "Insect" (remixed by noted producer Arthur Baker) and "Gas Stop (Who Do You Think You Are?)" (remixed by Francois Kevorkian) (both of which also charted in the US but had little local impact - "Gas Stop" peaked at No. 82 on the ARIA singles chart) and by their formal debut album Vertigo on Volition in 1990.
A boxcar is an enclosed railroad car for carrying general freight.
Boxcar(s) may also refer to:
I'm just a passenger
on this old freight train
I ride the boxcar
through the night
I doesn't matter
where I might get off
I doesn't matter where I lie.
I've been to cities,
I've been to countries
I've left a lover in many towns
I don't care if
I ever get back to
Where I'd already been around.
I'm like an eagle,
I like to fly high
I'm like a snake,
I like to lay low
I'm like a black man,
I'm like a white man
Maybe a red man, I don't know.
I'm just a passenger
on this old freight train
I ride the boxcar
through the night
I doesn't matter
where I might get off
I doesn't matter where I lie.