Bruce I would agree, 18”. I believe that was a standard ladder width. The car number could be used to find the car in an ORER listing or full photo of a car from the same series, that could off more d

MSTL boxcar 9511, built in 1906 by ACF. My records show one of a 1000, but the 1907 ORER shows 895 cars. Doug Harding www.iowacentralrr.org

Don that is not a normal size flatcar. The group of people to the right are standing next to a similar car. The deck is about at the lady’s knee, ie 18” high. Those rails may be 36” apart, making the

I would second the suggestion the gons contain forms for concrete work. Look like larger versions of the forms I remember using when pouring foundation walls. Doug Harding www.iowacentralrr.org

Rob, most of the major meat packers owned soap making companies, so byproducts were shipped to those plants. Or they were sold to third party concerns who had use for them. Nothing was wasted. Nationa

I can’t answer that question. My interests focused on what cars came in and out of a slaughter house, and what did they contain or what was their function, mostly so I could fill out waybills. Additio

Oh you will regret. A prime use for hog urine was cleaning lanolin from raw wool. Think of that the next time you wear a wool sweater. It is also used in fertilizer. Most blood was dried before shippi

Claus thank you. You are correct that is a Decker tank car, used for various fats, like lard, and for blood and hog urine. The tank cars were gone by the early 30s, replaced by leased units. You cite

To cite an example of a retouched photo. Attached is a photo scanned from a company brochure published by the Decker & Sons Meat Company, circa 1930. The photo shows the loading area, but what stands

No dimensional data, no reporting marks, no other required lettering for interchange service. Very likely a photo or negative that had lettering applied. Was a common technique for advertising photos.

It was also home of the Toad Suck Inn, a catfish restaurant. And the town celebration is focused on toads, with a giant toad painted on the main intersection in town. Of course none of this has anythi

Looks to be C&NW Doug Harding www.iowacentralrr.org

Good work Tom. Palace and Stable are certainly names affiliated with stockcars. The Arms Palace company being a builder. Doug Harding www.iowacentralrr.org

They are early CMSTP stockcars, perhaps as early as the 1880s. See attached photo taken at Murdo SD shows car with roof hatches. And a photo of double deck car 8327, the caption mentions the cars have

Notice the hogs in the pen with the hog shed. What is the white octagonal building? A phone booth? It’s up on cribbing and it looks like a tool boxes and other supplies around it. There are work crew

Claus the “sand car” is probably for hauling/storing locomotive sand. Appears to be a homemade single bay covered hopper. Doug Harding www.iowacentralrr.org

Jim an interesting detail, which I had not noticed before when looking at the photo. Thanks for pointing it out. I don’t recall seeing steel diamond plate used on ice hatches. Doug Harding www.iowacen

No, it is a standard two axle truck. Here is another photo of GE-25 in weed sprayer service. You can see the two wheels outlined by the shadows underneath. And a photo of GE-25 at the Cedar Lake shops

The M&StL converted a gas electric, GE-25, to weed spray duty in the late 50s. They added a control booth in the rear of the body with extra windows, spray arms, etc. The unit towed one or two tankcar

Here is an excellent explanation on HO stockcar models. https://sfrhms.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/stock_car_models.pdf Doug Harding www.iowacentralrr.org