The MILW, GN, and NP all built similar cars in 1958, Soo in 1959, NP again in 1960. The general adoption of covered hoppers for grain loading in the sixties eliminated these cars reason for being, which was to provide a wide door opening on a car that could still be coopered with standard grain doors for grain loading, and no more were built.
Dennis

That's because our webmaster picked up the "Built 1947" from the builder's badge stencil on the car. However, these are rebuildings of older cars. Our lettering scheme is based on a photo of a BC-50-8, I see a magazine tear sheet here in the file of a BC-50-10 and the caption states that it is one of 500 cars rebuilt from the 100,000 series in 1963. These were PS-1's built in 1948 as B-50-40. The cars built in 1947 were B-50-39, and had Dreadnaught ends. Unfortunately, since Metcalf's book doesn't document changes after 1951, I don't have a firm rebuild date, but it's likely early sixties, just eary enough to be painted in the "Be Specific" scheme.
Dennis

Folks,



Sometimes unpaid authors of books or articles for not-for-profit societies just get saturated from multi-tasking too many projects, and you just push a draft out to meet deadlines.  You work years on a book and then get a day and half to proof it (the week you have a big review at your real job).   Or, a chapter sits for a year and half, and then they need it updated (and you must also find those original images) in five days . . . right when your wife wants the garden prepped or you're having an allergy attack.



Yes, there are those (not the authors usually) who are very interested in style or form, that change layouts around and things which were once correct, don't always get back to where they should be.  There are NOT that many technically qualified volunteers offering and willing to proof read someone else's preliminary work these days either . . . it seems.



Al Kresse

Is there a cutoff date where carbuilders stopped using Carmer uncoupling
levers and switched to the rotary design?

The reason I ask -- I'm modeling L&N's USRA composite gondolas. L&N had
two series -- the #74000-74999 series built as USRA originals in 1919, and
the #73000-73999 series of USRA copies built in 1922-23. The #74000s clearly
had the Carmer design. The only photo I have of a #73000 series car is a
direct side view which doesn't show the uncoupling lever.

I'll welcome any insight!

Thanks,
Bob Chapman

So I guess that means that MP had a bunch of blue transfer cabeese running
around. That is great to know.

Denis Blake
OHIO

The review in the May 2009 issue starts by saying 40' box cars of this configuration were built between 1947 and 1964; then it states the first such cars were built by the GN shops in October 1953.
Among the initial roadname offerings is "Union Pacific (mineral red, lettered in yellow as built in 1947)."
So when WERE cars of this type first built?
BTW the Accurail ad on page 16 of that issue shows a UP car with the "Be Specific..." slogan, which was not in use in 1947.

Scott Pitzer

Jerry can add himself to that list. He authored a 376 page book on the cabooses of the Missouri Pacific and IIRC only had 2 minor errors.

As to his closing remark about the blue MP cabooses, one of my gripes is almost everyone calling MP's platfom cabooses (short bay window) transfer cabooses which they certainly WERE NOT.

Jerry Glow

--- In STMFC@yahoogroups.com, asychis@... wrote:

Erroneous information in the 128-page wonder books is certainly a problem.
It is a shame that these authors, editors and publishers do not realize
that these are not "pretty" books, but should be regarded as histories. As
more and more faulty information gets into print, the quality of railroad
history is degraded. It is degraded because each and every caption needs to
be analyzed, post-publication, by an expert on a particular railroad to
whom accuracy is important. Only someone devoted to a specific railroad or
railroad era knows when the information is wrong. Since I follow the
Missouri Pacific I can usually spot errors in books related to that railroad (and
they are legion), but I'm at a loss when it comes to determining if
information in a caption tagged to an NYC or C&O photo is accurate. If it were
not for lists such as this, these inaccuracies would go unnoticed. However
the corrections noted here are somewhat ephemeral; even if you search the
archives. I would like to trust the information in these books. As it stands,
however, the accuracy of these books is at times equivalent to the
accuracy of Lionel paint schemes. Thank goodness we have the Hawkins, Thompsons,
Cullotas and others who produce quality railroad history books that
counterbalance the pathetic efforts of the picture books.

Now if we could lay to rest the RMJ-inspired urban myth that the Missouri
Pacific had blue cabooses!

------------------------------------

Yahoo! Groups Links

Erroneous information in the 128-page wonder books is certainly a problem.
It is a shame that these authors, editors and publishers do not realize
that these are not "pretty" books, but should be regarded as histories. As
more and more faulty information gets into print, the quality of railroad
history is degraded. It is degraded because each and every caption needs to
be analyzed, post-publication, by an expert on a particular railroad to
whom accuracy is important. Only someone devoted to a specific railroad or
railroad era knows when the information is wrong. Since I follow the
Missouri Pacific I can usually spot errors in books related to that railroad (and
they are legion), but I'm at a loss when it comes to determining if
information in a caption tagged to an NYC or C&O photo is accurate. If it were
not for lists such as this, these inaccuracies would go unnoticed. However
the corrections noted here are somewhat ephemeral; even if you search the
archives. I would like to trust the information in these books. As it stands,
however, the accuracy of these books is at times equivalent to the
accuracy of Lionel paint schemes. Thank goodness we have the Hawkins, Thompsons,
Cullotas and others who produce quality railroad history books that
counterbalance the pathetic efforts of the picture books.

Now if we could lay to rest the RMJ-inspired urban myth that the Missouri
Pacific had blue cabooses!