All part of the ARA (later AAR) standard (not recommended practice), effective 1 March, 1927.

The corresponding diagrams are in my 1931 CBC, and I am guessing are in many subsequent editions as well.

--
Dave Parker
Swall Meadows, CA

Several manufacturers offer twin bay composite hoppers decorated for the Lehigh Valley Railroad painted in a freight car red paint scheme.  According to the Anthracite Historical Society's website, the LVRR did have some twin-bay composite hoppers painted black, but there is no mention of any painted freight car red.  An internet search for photos of these cars did not turn up anything.  Did the LVRR actually have any of these cars painted FCR?  

Mark Rossiter 

Boxcar Car Stenciling Practices

I've notice in builder's photos steam and transition era boxcars have a stencil stating "New" with a month and year which appears just above the sill to the right of the Capacity, Load Limit and Light Weight data.

Boxcars that have been in service long enough to require reweighing have their original stencils replaced by station symbols and reweigh dates.

The stencil information stating when the car was built then appears above the sill to the right of the door as "BLT" with a month and year.

Is there a required specification for these stencils and their locations or is it just a matter of recommend practice?

Thanks.

Bob Chaparro

Hemet, CA

Alex, thanks for the post.  Some of us remember and lament the loss of the MIGN and Chief (I rode the former from Rockford to Cedar Springs).  Are you saying Chicago was a gateway for MIGN?  How did they get there?  I thought the southern gateway was Grand Rapids, interchange with CSX (also at Reed City), CR, and GTW (and AA at Cadillac).

After partial deregulation in 1980 divisions remained a subject of negotiation between the carriers.  Sometimes potential movements were never realized because one of the participating railroads was too greedy.  Sometimes there was no satisfactory intermediate point where the participants could interchange and each get an equitable share of the revenue.  I was with BN and was trying to negotiate with my counterpart at CP for a move from Seattle to Minot ND.  Turns out the only workable interchange points were Minot itself and Sumas WA, meaning one of the participants would get only a couple hundred bucks, so that move never took place.

I'm glad to hear Fred Crissey is still with us.

Doug Polinder
Poquoson VA

That's a very realistic looking deck RJ!
Thanks for sharing your work.
Very inspiring.
Will try that too when the WP flats arrive....
Fred Jansz

Paul and Matthew - thanks for the kind comments. My layout was featured in Issue 45 of the B&O Modeler; here is the link to it:
https://borhs.org/ModelerMag/Modeler-45-201711.pdf

I live in southern Delaware.

Fran G.

If there are any NMRA members here, can you please inquire with the "powers that be" why some Reporting Marks have disappeared from the "Bob Charles Collection' on their site—SRR and SP for example? There were there at one point.

http://archive.nmra.org/Collections.aspx?c=509

Second, why do they not have the Harold "Dusty" Miller and Ernest Stefan collections available online since they own the negatives? All of these collections contain Freight Car images directly related to the era of this discussion group.

Bill Welch

Thanks for posting this;  it replaces the Tichy kit advice that uses Floquil.  I had good results with the Floquil, and I've been kind of messing around with acrylics and gotten OK results, but I'm going to try these on several flatcars I currently have on the bench. 

Ron Merrick

Confirming what Fred Crissey said, divisions of revenue between railroads were not governed by the ICC (at the time), they were privately negotiated between carriers.  When Michigan Northern Railway took over an ex-PRR line between Mackinaw City, MI and Grand Rapids, MI, it inherited by adoption (as required by the ICC) "all rates, routes and divisions".  This occurred on April 1, 1976, the same day Conrail started up.  Because MIGN had a connection with the Soo Line via the carferry Chief Wawatam at Mackinaw City, we had a gateway connection between the Western Territory and the Eastern Territory.  Chicago was another gateway.  After developing a fair amount of overhead traffic by declining to participate in an Ex Parte increase in freight rates during the Carter inflationary era, MIGN had to contact lots of railroads to get copies of division sheets.  Some were from a long undisturbed file apparently.  They had a musty odor and the division percent was hand written in ink in a Spencerian hand.  Partial deregulation in 1980 freed the railroads to renegotiate and/or cancel divisions.  Consolidation into the big six, BNSF, CN, CP, CSX, NS, and UP was one of the results.
Alex Huff, an incorporator of MIGN.                    

Photo is an 8 X 10 B&W photo of  Diamond Alkali Co. chlorine car that carries one ton cylinders. Asking $5.00 which includes postage by media mail.I accept check or money order. If interested contact me off list at OandLE@....
Thanks!
Bob Weston

That is a very nice looking layout thanks for sharing.

Paul Doggett. England 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿

Good morning,

I pretty much went with what Andy described when I built my CV NP stock car. However, being a "good enough" model for my HO late 1956 era B&O Shenandoah Sub-division layout, I just narrowed the ends and roof, and used the rest of the kit as is. I used dimensions from a diagram of the car and photos found online. Pictures are attached including one showing it being weighed on the scale at Winchester, VA.
Fran Giacoma

NPHS offers corrected ends for the CV stock car.

Bill Welch

On Fri, Nov 15, 2019 at 01:33 AM, Fred Jansz wrote:

speaking about PFE decals;
wish someone would print the 'inverted' UP herald as (accidentally) used on the R-30-16 (and maybe others).
fun to add to one of my Sunshine R-30-16's.
cheers,
Fred Jansz

I have 3-5 photos of cars with the reversed Red and White strips. Toward the end Champ was custom printing their art work and I had them print this version for me with extras to give to a few friends. I used mine on one of the late Terry Wegman's kit-bash kits using his roof and Red Caboose body to do my 30-16. Dick Harley reminds me occasionally that the "Union Pacific" lettering is not quite correct but I can live with it. Perhaps you should approach "Musk Island" about doing version. Microscale also has the art work via Dick and they custom print decal too.

Bill Welch