Bruce, I agree with what you say; I misunderstood the intended meaning of the title of Charlie Duckworth's original post so thank you for the clarification.

As for Steve's point about ACF's and GA's use of the term "type".  As you probably know, several of Richard Hendrickson's articles published in the 1990s suggest that this was indeed ACF's nomenclature.  Here is a quote from his July 1997 RMJ article entitled AC&F Type 27 ICC-103 10,000-Gallon Tank Cars,  "Both of the major American tank car builders, American Car & Foundry and General American, assigned type numbers to each new design indicating the year in which it first appeared. Thus AC&F Type 27 tank cars were introduced in 1927, replacing the Type 21 design that dated from 1921. The Type 27 then continued in production through the Great Depression and WWI I until it was discontinued in favor of all welded tank cars in the late 1940s"
Richard's wording suggests that it was indeed GA practice to do this as well but he does not cite a reference.
ACF's practice is clearly described on page 217 of Ed Kaminski's ACF Tank Car book but I have no comparable reference for GA.  If anyone else does perhaps they can share what can be learned from that.
Chris Barkan
Champaign, IL


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Chris Barkan
Champaign, IL