Hi Garth, Justin, and group,

If I might offer a small correction, RFP stock car 2409 was built from a different car series than the USRA cars. It came from the RFP 2251-2450 series delivered by Pressed Steel Car Co. in 1918. Those cars were shorter and wider than the USRA cars, had a different side stake configuration, and also a wider door opening. The majority of this series was off the RF&P’s roster in the late 1930s (at least 1 went to M&StL in the 28000 series, perhaps all?), but 10 were held back by the RF&P and converted to stock cars. What’s odd is that in the ORER the stock cars show up with the same dimensions as the USRA cars, but in the RF&P's documents 2409 (which survived into the 1960s) is clearly marked as PSC 1918 and the dimensional diagram matches the PSC cars. This is not the first weirdness I’ve uncovered in the RF&P’s ORER listings.

To the USRA cars, the doors are listed in RF&P documentation dated 1953 as “Camel, wood,” brakes as “Ajax geared - Westinghouse AB,” and the roof as “Murphy galvanized.” As of Jan. 1, 1955 the following cars numbers are listed as being in service: 1092, 1104, 2489, 2569, 2575, 2581, 2587, 2598, 2609, 2621, 2625, 2630, 2640, 2661, 2694, 2714, 2727, 2731, 2746, 2769, 2774, 2781, and 2782. That’s what’s in the documentation, but photographic evidence reveals this to be not 100% accurate as I have pictures of 1019, 1020, and 2775 all with reweigh dates from the 1960s. But at least that list may serve as a starting point for picking 1950s era numbers.

All the best,

James McDonald
Greenbelt, MD