Eric Hiser wrote:

Dear Group:
I am trying to build up resources on freight cars in the 1880-1930s
period, with a particular interest in Santa Fe practice, although I would be
interested in good resources on any road during this period. I have White's
The American Freight Car and I am aware of at least the Santa Fe Railway
Historical & Modeling Society's freight car series, which generally starts
in this period and continues to the 1960s and beyond, and the steam freight
cars site on the web. Any other recommended books, resources, or
particularly good articles covering this period that I should look up?
I enjoy this group and look forward to your thoughts and
recommendations.

Eric,

For general debates within the Car Builder community, a good place to look would be the PROCEEDINGS OF THE SESSIONS OF THE MASTER CAR BUILDERS ASSOCIATION ANNUAL CONVENTIONS - the MCB became the American Railway Association's Division V - Mechanical sometime between 1915 and 1923. In these Proceedings, you get the proposals and debate over those proposals among the Master Carbuilders of the Railroads. Also included in some of these Proceedings is an appendix providing the historical record of when various Standards and and Recommended Practice were adopted - prior to the 1919 Proceedings these standards and practices were printed as an appendix.

The 1915 Proceedings is available on http://www.bookfinder.com/ - search for it using the Master Carbuilders Association as the author and Proceedings as the title. Its about $83. From time to time, EBAY has auctions on these volumes. I know of no library which maintains these volumes, but maybe someone else does (Garth?).

Tim Gilbert