Steve Sandifer wrote:

I am going through a 1930 Conductor record. Though his writing is not the best, I have interpreted some reporting marks to be as follows.

You can see the current status at
http://atsfrr.net/resources/Sandifer/Frt/index.htm

Steve,

I see you what you mean by the XG, XF, etc.. By best guess (& perhaps yours, too) is that the abbreviations in the Contents column stand for the sundry grades of boxcars. For instance, in the 1940's, empty boxcars were generally graded into four categories for potential reloads: - A, B, C, & D (or X) - with A being the highest grade and D being the lowest. The 1930 ATSF system may be a variation of those four categories.

I have never found anything "official" on the classification of empty boxcars until the April 1961 ORER when, on page 774-776 in Rule 18 of the CODE OF CAR SERVICE RULES, where restrictions on reloads were placed upon boxcars suitable for grain loading.

Have you entered the cars included in the July 1930 McFarren Wheel Reports onto a spreadsheet - particularly when McFarren conducted the wayfreight? If so, you might get lucky and note the same boxcars being loaded and empty. You might be able to detect which commodities an XG, XM, XR or XT or F could carry if there is a match of the same boxcar.

Hope this helps, Tim Gilbert