jim_mischke wrote:

B&O frequently made up for its available car shortfalls by buying,
begging, borrowing, commandeering and leasing cars from other
railroads.

By 1960, a financially troubled B&O had accumulated a whopping 42%
bad order freight car ratio.

Where does the 42% come from?

For the year 1960 according to the ICC's Monthly Operating Statistics of Large Steam RR's, 18.2% of the daily average of all freight cars on the B&O were unserviceable (1960 average - 95,396 average total cars on line daily; 17,171 cars unserviceable). Of the 95,396 average total cars on line, 60,311 were owned by the B&O, and 35,085 foreign owned. If we assume that 1% of the foreign cars on line were unserviceable, then 16,770 B&O cars would be unserviceable which then translate to 19.0% of B&O's total 12/31/1961 being deemed unserviceable.

Granted B&O's 18.2% was an awfully high number - even more than the PRR's 13.8% - the national average unserviceable percent was 7.7% in 1960.

Part of digging themselves out of this hole, with substantial C&O
help, B&O availed themselves of a variety of secondhand hoppers and
boxcars (all built between 1932 and 1952, complying with this list's
ground rules) by various arrangements involving sales, leases, and
sniveling.
So, over the years, B&O had secondhand cars from .....

Regarding B&M's "contributions" to the B&O in 1949 the B&M leased 100 1928 quad hoppers and 100 drop bottom gons to the B&O for five years. The B&O renumbered the hoppers into their #2000-2099 series and the gons into their #36000-36099 series. The B&O returned 99 of the hoppers and all 100 of the gons to the B&M at the expiration of the lease.
Tim Gilbert