Doug, The ACF bill of materials for lot 2712 specifies Wine door locks and T-Z brake steps (steel plate with pressed safety tread) on all 75 cars. Hand brakes were Ajax for the first 50 cars 4000-4049

<snip> Gary and Eric, Gary, you are correct about the WofA 17700-17847 diagram that specifies the rebuilding in 1948-1949, as well as the origin of the original cars. The diagram for identical steel r

Eric, I can help to an extent with your question. Builder photos of DL&W 49000 (built 2-40) & 49262 (3-40) lack the Phoebe Snow slogans. The Magor Car Corp. builder photo of DL&W 51000 (built 4-42) do

Bill, The item in question is a defect card holder by the name of “Cheeper” made by Western Railway Equipment Co. Attached is a U.S. Patent for it. There were a number of different types/manufacturers

Mike and others interested, The burning plant was the former ACF Madison plant located in Madison, Illinois. A segment on pages 15-16 of Edward S. Kaminski’s book American Car & Foundry Company 1899-1

Clark, The Keith Retterer list of SSC builder photos denotes 11500 (built 8/22/06) and 12500 (built 2/18/07) both as “wood, double sheathed” box cars. Each order was for 1,000 cars in series 11500-124

Dave and others interested, In going thru the ACF photos and records, I cannot find a lot number for NEACX 32. Because of this I surmise the car was purchased 2nd-hand. Interestingly, NEAX 32 appears

Lester, The following info comes from a santa fe diagram for class Rr, 1,500 cars in series 31656-33155, built new as Rr-W in 1920-1921. The diagram refers to another Rr-23 diagram that denotes the ca

Bruce, The 25 MAWX 5034-5058 dry ice cars built 10-47 by Despatch Shops, Inc., were similar to conventional steel refrigerator cars from an overall outward appearance to include roof hatches at each c

Bruce, Following is a list of ACF dry ice cars built with sides in which the upper part are sloped. Build dates range from 1935 to 1946. Several prior orders built from 1932 to 1935 had straight sides

Les, The 25 M-K-T flat cars in question were built 4-54 in ACF lot no. 4213. The builder photo of 13701 indicates they follow the 50-ton AAR flat car design in all respects. According to available ACF

Mike, Lettering is the serif-style that’s the old style per the list. The build date is difficult to read but I believe it’s 11-53. No information is written on the back other than Bob’s code FMDT8. E

Tim, Thanks Tim. Two additional photos of MDT reefers leased to Lackawanna include Bob’s Photo with a 3/4BL view of MDT 12068 & Joe Collias left-side view of MDT 12178 with new 12-53 stencils photogra

Rick, The short answer to your question is yes. The box cars in the subject line "NKP 20000-20500" were of mixed designs. NKP 20000-20499 was comprised of two orders of different box cars, neither of

Phil & others interested, I can add some info on this topic regarding a single SHPX tank car leased to Goodyear for hauling latex. SHPX 10887, built 10-39, ACF lot 1918, Type 27, 50-tons, 10,000 gallo

Brad and anyone interested, From reading the discussion thus far about the topic, I’m providing a friendly reminder to STMFC members of the unmentioned comprehensive article on the subject published i

Brad, From the time the Frisco 30’-6” HM cars were rebuilt from 1937 to well into the 1940s, the panel-side conversions were originally painted black. While I don’t know the exact date of the color ch

Richard, A GN diagram for the single car 29001 denotes it was built by Pullman-Standard in 1940 and modified by GN in 1958. The original number was 49759, one of the many former double-sheathed box ca

Steve & Clark,To help narrow down the date, FtDDM&S 13000-13001 first appeared in the ORER sometime after 1/58 and before the 1/59 edition. The 1/59 ORER actually has Oct. 1958 in the lower right corn

Correction: Photos of CMO cars show 1682 & 1808 rebuilt in 1941 had Superior doors and 8-panel sides. Cars 1672 & 1720 had Youngstown doors and the unusual version 10-panel sides with the half-panels