Gatwood, Elden wrote:

All still interested;

Thanks for all the additional insights.

I just wanted to add one more interesting thing onto this discussion and
that is the use of different age cars in different services.

If the RRs were giving their newest and best cars to the customers that
most demanded them, who was getting the dregs?

I remember that the worst cars I ever saw were those in scrap service.
Others have pointed out that the worst boxcars they ever saw were in
grain, hide, or animal remains service.

I had earlier pointed out that I remember gons and flats with little
flooring remaining, still being used around Pittsburgh. I also remember
an older guy on the RR pointing out to me that the PRR hid gons all over
the area because of a gon shortage. While the mills may have demanded
really nice cars for coil service or shipping large structural shapes,
the left-overs must've been shunted into scrap service. Scrap dealers
commonly cut holes in the sides to fasten banding to cars that didn't
have tie-downs, which I am sure irritated the owner. I also remember
watching magnet operators purposely bashing the ends and sides out of
gons as idle amusement. Would you send your nice new gons to these guys
after they came back bashed to death? Similarly, would you send good
gons into hot coil service after they came back burned out? This mighty
have been the direct reason the PRR kept small numbers of really old
cars in active service.

Just a thought for us "nasty cars" modelers.

Elden,

Rule 18 of the Code of Car Service Rules effective 1/1/1960 had the following language:

A) Box Cars suitable for grain loading or better & Reefers must not be loaded with any of the contaminating commodities listed below:

1) Animal Products
1a) Hides, Pelts or Skins
1b) Glue Stock
1c) Manure or Fertilizing Compounds with Contaminating Odor,
1d) Meat Refuse, Offal, Tankage or Waste of slaughtered animals,
1e) Bones or Horns with Contaminating Odor,
1f) Dried Blood
1g) Tallow

2) Copra
3) Fish Scrap or Fish Meal
4) Shell Fish in Bulk
5) Shells in raw state with contaminating odor,
6) Asphalt Natural or Compounds. by product or petroleum,
7) Creosote or Creosote Materials
8) Lamp Black, Carbon Black, Graphite or Plumbago,
9) Poisonous Containers or Compounds in containers or bulk.

If such cars were loaded with these commodities, and it is necessary to renew floors, lining or sheathing in order to restore car to its condition prior to loading, that cost would be borne by the originating road, and not the car owner.

B) The following commodities must not be loaded in foreign boxcars classed as suitable for grain loading are better or reefers, except that such cars participating in the haul may be used when authorized by the car owner:

1) Used, Burned Out or Scrap Battery Parts,
2) Charcoal in Bulk or Bags,
3) Coal, Coke, Lignit & Briquettes,
4) Empty Containers when previous use of those containers were for acids, asphalt, chemicals, creosote, grease, oils, tar, tankage, and similar contaminating commodities unless thoroughly cleaned inside and outside to prevent contamination.
5) Cotton or Other Seeds, Hulls, Fibre or Shavings when oily or dyed, in bulk or in containers which would result in contamination.
6) Crushed, ground & powdered Glass in Containers or in Bulk.
7) Graphite in Containers which would result in Contamination,.
8) Greasy or Oily Products in bulk or in containers which would result in contamination including:
8a) Metal Borings & Turnings,
8b) Bearings,
8c) Chains,
8d) Electrical Apparatus,
8e) Iron or Steel Bars, Plates or Shapes,
8f) Machine Parts,
8g) Machinery,
8h) Pipe and Pipe Fittings,
8i) Scrap,
8j) Tin Plate (oiled),
8k) Vehicle Parts including implements and tractors.
9) Insecticides, Fungicides, Insect Repellents, Vermin Exterminators, Poisonous, in Containers or Bulk,
10) Peat or Peat Moss in Bulk,
11) Tar and Tar Products in barrels and tar refuse,
12) Acids,
13) Grease,
14) Molasses,
15) Oils,
16) Petroleum or Petroleum Products including compounded oils and greases having a contaminated base.

************************************

These Rules may have been in effect before 1960, but were never published as part of the Car Service Rules in the ORER's. I do know that boxcars were classified in yards after WW II as type A, B, C or D (sometimes X), but this is the first thing I have seen in elaborating what Class D and, perhaps, C were.

For other car types, there may have been some formal or informal restrictions between car owners and users, but I have not anything in writing.

Tim Gilbert