-- In STMFC@..., LOUIS WHITELEY <octoraro1@...> wrote:
Earlier than your time period, but the October 1948 ORER lists Wabash gondolas
fitted for frame loading:

16 cars in the series 12500 - 12599 for Mercury-Lincoln frames;
35 cars in the same series for Ford passenger frame loading; and
101 cars in the series 13000 - 13249 for "Gear Frame" loading (ORER's quotes),
whatever that is.  These were differentiated from other cars in the series
with the A.A.R. Mechanical Designation GBS.

Lou Whiteley

Lou, the common description for automobile or truck frames used on waybills was
"Gear Fames", so the cars in series 13000-13249 are being used in auto or truck
frame service. You will most commonly see the cars assign to the A.O. Smith
Company at Milwaukee, Wis., they manufactured most, if not all, of the frames for
General Motors. It was not uncommon at all for me to see as may as 40 or more
cars of frames a day arriving in the Chicago terminal for furtherance to connecting
lines, all from a daily production at the company destine to just about all of GM's
assembly plants in North America.

Happiness, Jerry Stewart

In a Hot Woodstock, Illinois