Nelson Moyer wrote:

Lisle upped the ante on freight car detailing, so now I need to make
destination cards for boxcars. What size were these cards? From RPC
#23 photos, they seem to be between 4x4 in. and 4x6 in., depending
upon road.

I think they are better described as "route cards," since in
the early part of a car's journey they only indicated onward routing.
From photos it appears that there was no standard. A variety of sizes
and shapes can be seen, though most are square or nearly square. As we
have mostly B&W photos for our era, you mostly can't tell color, but
color shots do show mostly a manila color, with white, yellow and blue
cards visible occasionally.

Photos of CB&Q single sheathed box cars show destination cards
attached randomly to the lower boards of the sheathing, since there
was no dedicated
tack board (just the large tack board for hazard placards).

This is generally true for wood sheathing, on both box cars
and reefers. And you can often note multiple route cards tacked atop
one another, or partially torn off.

Were destination cards just tacked on, or how were they attached?

As Dennis Storzek described, with a "hammer stapler." One
bang and it was done.

Tony Thompson Editor, Signature Press, Berkeley, CA
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