Posted by: "Tony Thompson" walter kierzkowski wrote:

A lot of the Auto Parts box cars (That Ford designed) had that "DF" in
the 60's

True, but the emblem appeared at least as early as 1955, well
before those 60-foot cars appeared--and in any case the latter period
is off the end of the permitted period of the list <g>.

DF was a trademark of General American which I believe had the original patent for belt rails with interlocking bars across the car. Evans also was involved - don't recall its relationship with GA. The generic term used by the railroads, which you will see in the ORER and car service directives, is "load-protective device". That term also applied to the vertical inside door type devices, pne of which was the tradmark "Compartmentizer".


Malcolm Laughlin, Editor 617-489-4383
New England Rail Shipper Directories
19 Holden Road, Belmont, MA 02478