Courtesy of Bob Drenth and Jeff Aley...

In cases where track and building did not allow man to be on that side of a car to get doors lined up- usually the rail directly outside the door would get painted red or yellow –so a switchman could use that as a guide to spot the car-get the door of the car directly above the paint and the car and building would be “close enough” for the loading to proceed..

Bob

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I find this very interesting – it’s simple and clever.  I had never noticed this before; was this a common practice?  And if so, were industries doing so back in the early 1950’s (I don’t see why not)?

Jeff

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Was this commonplace or just particular to certain railroads? Does anyone have a photo or photo link?

Thanks.

Bob Chaparro

Hemet, CA