--- In STMFC@..., "erict1361" <erict1361@> wrote:

Basically I wanted to know which version was more common, The wood End or Steel end toward the end late 1940's? I am building the same two kits, but want to keep the more common version.

Eric,

This excerpt is from page 37 of July 1988 MM (Barkan and Nehrich):

"With its cast-steel trucks and Dreadnaught end, car 69505 typifies the appearance of these cars as they entered their final decade of service. In 1940, just one year before arrival of the first large order of all-steel cars on the property, roughly 8000 composite box cars were in service for the New Haven. Almost all of them were of this type...

...Although some of the composite-end cars probably received new trucks, all of the clear photos we have seen are of cars equipped with Dreadnaught ends. It seems reasonable to suppose that, when choosing cars to receive the new trucks, the New Haven might have given preference to those equipped with the more modern Dreadnaught ends."


If you credit their supposition, it would seem the steel end was the more common version in the late 40s.

Regards,

Charles Hostetler