Steve Sandifer wrote:

> "Remember, the 28/36 hour law began when the first hoof hit the floor, so you did not load cars and let them sit around for an hour waiting on the train unless the trip was short enough that you had time to spare on the clock. Factor in setting brakes, air tests, applying shipping seals, signing paperwork."

Incorrect, loading and unloading time did not factor into the law.

Guy Wilber
Reno, Nevada

Hello Group,

With this discussion about stock car interiors I begun to think about filling those interiors.

My question is… Considering the load to be cattle, how long, on average, would it take to load a typical stock car. Also, the follow-on question of how long would it take to unload a typical stock car.

Next question(s)… would sheep or hogs take longer or less time to load or unload?

Thank & Cheers,
Bill Keene
Irvine, CA

Don Valentine responded to Tony Thompson’s remarks on this thread, and I’ll endorse not only what Don said about the availability of steam to clean cars, but also add that just because the interior of the car was steam cleaned doesn’t mean that the runoff from that process was completely washed off the entire car. I’m sure that some cars that had been cleaned on the interior would have residue appearing on the exterior of the car after the steam had condensed and run down on the exterior. Much more likely to happen in cooler climes than in the California Bay Area, perhaps, but still . . .

Schuyler

---In STMFC@..., <tony@...> wrote :

Eric Hansmann wrote:

Thanks for the info, Doug. I think I will have some lime remnant weathering on my stock car model.

Nice touch on a loaded car, but an empty one was ordinarily steam-cleaned before re-use and would certainly no longer show the lime.

Tony Thompson Editor, Signature Press, Berkeley, CA

2906 Forest Ave., Berkeley, CA 94705 www.signaturepress.com

(510) 540-6538; e-mail, tony@...

Publishers of books on railroad history

I would think that this would depend on how quickly and where the car was steam cleaned. Stock

pens were found all over the place, particularly in Northern New England where there seems to have

been one every 25 to 30 miles so farmers did not have to drive livestock too far. But I have seen few

of the pens that were left into the early 1970's that had anything close to steam cleaning equipment.

No notations have been found in reference to pens having steam cleaning equipment on site either.

Thus it would seem that empty cars would have to be moved at least to a yard with a car repair track

where one could probably find a steam generator as well. Perhaps things were different on the western roads but this is what I have found over the years on the B&M, the CV, the Rutland and the MEC.

Cordially, Don Valentine

Hi Garth, Justin, and group,

If I might offer a small correction, RFP stock car 2409 was built from a different car series than the USRA cars. It came from the RFP 2251-2450 series delivered by Pressed Steel Car Co. in 1918. Those cars were shorter and wider than the USRA cars, had a different side stake configuration, and also a wider door opening. The majority of this series was off the RF&P’s roster in the late 1930s (at least 1 went to M&StL in the 28000 series, perhaps all?), but 10 were held back by the RF&P and converted to stock cars. What’s odd is that in the ORER the stock cars show up with the same dimensions as the USRA cars, but in the RF&P's documents 2409 (which survived into the 1960s) is clearly marked as PSC 1918 and the dimensional diagram matches the PSC cars. This is not the first weirdness I’ve uncovered in the RF&P’s ORER listings.

To the USRA cars, the doors are listed in RF&P documentation dated 1953 as “Camel, wood,” brakes as “Ajax geared - Westinghouse AB,” and the roof as “Murphy galvanized.” As of Jan. 1, 1955 the following cars numbers are listed as being in service: 1092, 1104, 2489, 2569, 2575, 2581, 2587, 2598, 2609, 2621, 2625, 2630, 2640, 2661, 2694, 2714, 2727, 2731, 2746, 2769, 2774, 2781, and 2782. That’s what’s in the documentation, but photographic evidence reveals this to be not 100% accurate as I have pictures of 1019, 1020, and 2775 all with reweigh dates from the 1960s. But at least that list may serve as a starting point for picking 1950s era numbers.

All the best,

James McDonald
Greenbelt, MD

>
> Messages in this topic (9)
> __________________________________________________________
> 3e. Re: RF&P USRA Boxcar
> Posted by: "Garth Groff" sarahsan@... ggg9y
> Date: Wed Mar 8, 2017 2:47 pm ((PST))
>
> Justin, Eric and Friends,
>
> Actually, there were two groups of RF&P USRA boxcars. RF&P 2451-2800
> originally assigned to the RF&P by the USRA. Subsidiary Washington
> Southern was assigned 981-1130, later merged into the RF&P. This gave
> the RF&P a total of 500 cars. In January 1958, there were still 9 cars
> left in the 2451 group, and 8 in the 981 group. There was also a stock
> car, 2409, which had the same dimensions as the USRA boxcars. These were
> some of the longest serving USRA single-sheathed cars in revenue service
> in more-or-less original condition. I have a photo in my collection of
> RF&F 1131 with a 1965 reweigh date. Quite a few USRA boxcars also were
> in RF&P's MOW fleet.
>
> Yours Aye,
>
>
> Garth Groff