Rupert,

As to ORER's there were many tariffs that involved minimums and took into
account the capacity of a furnished car. The ORER was the only official
publication that could be cited.

As to the exact numbers with fractions there are those that like to go to
that extreme.

As to the concept of publishing the dimensions at all it did serve a
purpose. A factory loading appliances packed in cardboard cartons was very
concerned about interior width and height. If they could steer their contact
to only order or spot cars that they could use it helped both them and the
carrier.

I have mentioned that I viewed the whole process as "pragmatic and
practical". That does not mean that you gave the Customer cars that they can
not load to their satisfaction. Did a little trace on a car last night.
Was loaded with some type of forest product at Longview TX for a building
materials company in La Crosse WI. When empty it was spotted at City Brewing
and loaded with Malt Liquor for Coors at Golden CO. That is a lot of
revenue for an empty haul of about five miles. Both Customers got what they
wanted and needed. Was this an assigned car? Probably not. These days more
and more cars are assigned to commodity pools with no specific loading
point.

Russ
A couple of questions relating to rates and ORER's.

Were the per diem rates fixed solely by the individual railroad, by
agreement or by regulatory imposition? I suspect the latter, thereby
avoiding price wars (noting recent comments about competing on service or
whisky bottles!).

However they were fixed, did these rates take into account the size of the
car, cubic capacity, etc? The picture I have gained over the last three
years of posts (especially from those who actually worked in the yards)
was
that little consideration was given to the dimensions of the car being
assigned, as long as it was long/wide/high enough,, etc. This then begs
the
question as to why car owners showed the dimensions in the ORER's down to
the nearest sixteenth of an inch, or the cubic capacity to the nearest
cubic
foot.

Rupert Gamlen
Auckland NZ