The only orange IC reefer photos that I've seen are of MDT
reefers from 1958 onwards. I don't know when the MDT-IC cars
began to be painted orange, but I think MDT began using orange
paint in the 1940's. Other MDT steel reefer users include GM&O,
DL&W, NYC (i.e. reefers with MDT reporting marks with emblems
of those railroads).

Tim O'Connor

George, Irv Athearn committed many sins against prototype modelers
for which, we may hope, has been forgiven now that he has gone to the
great freight yard in the sky, but this wasn't one of them. If the
Illinois Central ever painted their reefers orange, it was long after
the period covered by the STMFC list. The steel reefers delivered in
1937 and 1941-'42 were yellow-green-black when new (and the 1937 cars
at least, had aluminum painted roofs when delivered). Cars repainted
through the 1940s and '50s were essentially the same, though not with
aluminum roofs. There is photographic evidence of this P/L scheme
continuing well into the '60s, though IC did adopt a simpler P/L
scheme in the 1960s with everything on the sides (including hardware
and ladders) yellow and the rest of the car in black.

Richard Hendrickson

Yungkurth, "Steam Era of Lehigh Valley", p 58, shows the left sides
of LV 41254 (composite quad) and 41185 (steel-sided quad); the train
pipe isn't visible in either.

Al Brown, Melbourne, Fla.

JOhn Golden asked me a question off-list for which others may want to
know the answer:

Why does Intermountain have some of these cars with NRC reporting
marks--I'm sure there's a good explanation.

After World War II, instead of enlarging it's own fleet of steel
reefers to replace its aging 1920s wood reefers, the Illinois Central
began leasing reefers from the Northern Refrigerator Car Co., the
leasing subsidiary of New York Central's Merchants Dispatch
Transportation Co. These cars, operated under NRC reporting marks,
had Illinois Central heralds, diamond heralds at first and later
(after the period covered by the STMFC list) circle i heralds.
However, the Intermountain models are incorrect; the prototype NRC
cars were of MDT design, with roofs, ends, and other details that
were different from those on the cars the IC owned.

Richard Hendrickson

For some reason I had it in my mind that freight car underframes had a 40 year life span. I was told otherwise by the more knowledgeable on this list.

This morning at coffee one of the local modelers said he'd read where one railroad had sold some cars that had reached the 40 year mark to another railroad. He was under the impression that at 40 years cars had to be scrapped!

Is there any 40 year rule, or milestone, that applies to freight cars? Just wondering where we were picking up these ideas from....

Thanks,
Clark Propst
Mason City Iowa

George, Irv Athearn committed many sins against prototype modelers
for which, we may hope, has been forgiven now that he has gone to the
great freight yard in the sky, but this wasn't one of them. If the
Illinois Central ever painted their reefers orange, it was long after
the period covered by the STMFC list. The steel reefers delivered in
1937 and 1941-'42 were yellow-green-black when new (and the 1937 cars
at least, had aluminum painted roofs when delivered). Cars repainted
through the 1940s and '50s were essentially the same, though not with
aluminum roofs. There is photographic evidence of this P/L scheme
continuing well into the '60s, though IC did adopt a simpler P/L
scheme in the 1960s with everything on the sides (including hardware
and ladders) yellow and the rest of the car in black.

Richard Hendrickson

Clark Propst wrote:

For some reason I had it in my mind that freight car underframes had
a 40 year life span. I was told otherwise by the more knowledgeable
on this list.
Is there any 40 year rule, or milestone, that applies to freight
cars? Just wondering where we were picking up these ideas from....

In the era of this list, Clark, there was no such rule AFAIK.
Today there is.

Tony Thompson Editor, Signature Press, Berkeley, CA
2906 Forest Ave., Berkeley, CA 94705 www.signaturepress.com
(510) 540-6538; fax, (510) 540-1937; e-mail, thompson@...
Publishers of books on railroad history

For some reason I had it in my mind that freight car underframes had  
a 40 year life span. I was told otherwise by the more knowledgeable  
on this list.
Is there any 40 year rule, or milestone, that applies to freight  
cars? Just wondering where we were picking up these ideas from....

Thanks for the info. I really don't know anything about these cars other than I'll need a few for my operating scheme. If I model 1950, what paint features should the car have? Is this car appropriate:

http://www.imrcmodels.com/ho/html/46707p.htm

I also have noted that Stan R. offers parts to upgrade the Intermountain cars as IC reefers. Are these for later/different series of cars?

Thanks!
John Golden

The doors on the IC cars were about seven inches shorter
than those on the R-40-10's. 4'-0" x 6'-6" on the IC cars
and 4'-0" x 7'-0 3/4" on the PFE's. If that bothers you,
I think Stan Rydarowicz might have the shorter doors.

Chet French
Dixon, IL

http://www.steamfreightcars.com/prototype/photo/hopkinspdfmain.html

There's one photo available in the Chas Wales collection

Roger Hinman
On Sep 3, 2010, at 2:54 PM, cr6485 wrote:

This may not be the most-appropriate forum for this post. If not, I apologize and ask the moderators to delete the message.

Being involved with the restoration of Cambria & Indiana HM 162, I quickly realized that no one seems to have performed a thorough documentation of the railroad's revenue freight car fleet. We struggled quite a bit to find lettering diagrams, builders, and rebuild information. I've decided to begin the process of documenting the C&I's entire fleet throughout its 90-year existance as an active railroad. I want this research to include all cars owned by the railroad, not just hoppers.

Can anyone point me to collection of builder's photos or other original fleet information. I'm looking for orders, builders photos, in-service photos, etc... from all eras. I've checked the normal online means (The Fallen Flags site, the C&I site, amongst many others), Retter's Standard Steel lists, and Bill Nixon's photos. I've also gone through the files section of this group to see the Westerfield photo list and other things. Surprisingly little has shown up.

What else is available? Would anyone be willing to help point me in the proper direction? I'm willing to pay postage on any items sent to me, and will return items promptly, post paid.

Incidentally, anyone interested in the restoration of 162 can look at the following URL: http://tinyurl.com/24fejfh

Thanks,
Keith Burkey

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]