DM&IR was an early user of 3M Scotchlite reflective lettering starting in 1955 on new diesel locomotives. Starting in summer 1959 these reflective monograms, reporting marks and numbers began to be ap

Tim, NEB&W and the Midwest Railroad Modelers club in Batavia, started in 1977, were a couple of the early walk-around shelf type layouts. Layout concept for MRRM layout can be attributed to Bill Neale

Following from my Car Service Division records concerning handling of Canadian ownership equipment. "Special Car Order 36 issued in 1938 and broadened by later amendments suspends operation of Car Ser

I would advise those of you interested in the PNW lumber traffic to obtain or get on loan, "American Commodity Flow" by Edward L. Uhlman, published in 1957 by University of Washington Press in Seattle

Rules apply to all equipment with the exception of: tank cars, specially equipped boxcars, LO cars in later years and any car specified in Special Car Orders. Dan Holbrook

Easiest explanation is the rules themselves. Rule 1 Home cars shall not be used for movement of traffic beyond the limites of the home road when the use of other suitable cars under these rules is pra

"When Empty Return To" dates from at least WWII and probably earlier. I won't venture a guess on the fist application. This stenciling on the side of the car was an early effort to get cars that were

Bill, Before telephone agent would telegraph requests to other agents served by the local and the yard that madeup the local serving his station. Lacking a positive response for car supply, most yards

Jim, In all cases, foreign cars were used in preference to home road cars, if they were available. If no foreign car was available a home road car would be used. Determining how long to wait for an ap

Local SP yard at Roseburg would have attempted to supply the correct car, in compliance with the rules. Industries did not normally call and say I need a car in 4 or 5 hours. Car orders were placed, a

March 1951 was at the end of a rough winter for many locations and also happened at the time of equipment shortages almost nationwide. Numbers began to improve from 1951 to 1952. Dan

I'll add to Tony's comments based on my 42 year railroad career, which predates list, but I was hanging around with agency and car distributors as early as 1964 and did do car ordering, supply and dis

Car Service Rules did allow the backhauling of empties providing there was an order on hand with the agent at the loading location specifying a routing to, via, or in the direction of the owner. Dan H

Boxcar loading of coal at Duluth was still taking place in 1974, well beyond the scope of the list. Most was being shipped to smaller lumber yards in Northern Minnesota. Dan Holbrook

The open top stats are for hoppers and gondolas and do not include flatcars. I do not have breakdown for each individual railroad. Dan Holbrook

I've posted to files section the percentage of home road cars on-line from 1940 to1960. This information is from Car Service Division records. Thought it might be interesting with the current discussi

Tim O'Connor wrote: I like the cars, and yours are very fine models -- but do we model whatwe see every day, or what we like? Tony Thompson has argued that SP modelers can avoidbuying SP 65 foot mill

Ed, Railway Age January 25, 1947: "W.C. Kendall, Chairman of the Car Service Division of the AAR has notified all roads that because there has been no diminution in the demand for pressure type tank c

From my DM&IR records: PRR leased 1200 70-ton DM&IR 24' 70-ton ore cars on Dec 1, 1956. These were returned to DM&IR during late March 1957. PRR again leased 850 DM&IR 24' 70-ton ore cars on Dec 1, 19

Bill, Thanks Doug for reference to my article. I also presented at RMJ in Naperville in 2006 about grain handling and 1992 on grain doors. Prior to 1911, grain was retained by loose lumber and various