"According to the car diagram in the IC 1954 freight car diagram
book the cars were built by GATC in East Chicago IN in 1937 so the
photo could be a delivery photo. 161501 - 161700 had auto loaders
and 161701 - 162300 no auto loaders. At some point (the diagram
sheet doesn't give a date) they were renumbered to 44000 - 44199
(auto loaders) and 41000 - 41599 (no auto loaders)."
Jeffrey,
ORER information that will help you with the renumbering. The renumbering of the 161501-161700 cars may have commenced prior to April of 1940. The 161701-162300 series renumbering occurred between January of 1941 and January of 1943. I don't have ORERs to fill in the blanks.
