Ben offered some interesting observations from "Pennsy Steam Years, Vol 1". I picked up the September 2004 issue of Classic Trains recently and noticed several interesting freight cars in the backgrounds and foregrounds. An Optivisor helps when viewing some of these images. Even with the Optivisor, many car numbers are difficult to determine. I've offered my best guesses in several cases below.

p 18 - Valley, Nebraska - February 18, 1952
A stock car behind the big red UP loco. While I can't see any reporting marks, many of you were just discussing the color of some UP stock cars. This one obviously has a silver end and roof, with mineral red sides. Mike's probably busy painting one of his FEF's in primer red right now.

p 35 - Gloversville, NY - October 15, 1950
The lower color photo shows several reefers in different paint and lettering. The color seems to have held up well . Any guesses on the orange car in front of the Swift reefer? I'd think PFE, but the lettering doesn't seem to match well. The photo above would be just as interesting if it wasn't in the shadows.

p 41 - Chicago, Ill - Fall 1940
A train to the left of the IC terminal sports a B&O M53 and N&W X31-style round roof car. I'm at a loss for hte N&W car class here - B...somethingorother. I'll fail a pop quiz on N&W cars, that's for sure. Three NYC hoppers round out the short train. A few interesting cars are in the consist of the steam transfer freight on the far main.

p 43 - Chicago, Ill - November 1928
While the exact freight cars are difficult to identify, this aerial view offers some ideas for terminal, freight house, and team trackage. I'm drawn to the Rock Island freight houses along the right side of the photo.

p 50 & 51 - New Orleans, LA - October 1943
Top photo - On the far right, a New Haven 1937 AAR boxcar (80593) and a well-worn CB&Q car. I'm not up on too many mid-western cars, so I'm at a loss for what this Q car is. It looks similar to a 1923 ARA car, but it seems to have a wood door. It has a six digit number that looks like 113745 or 113345.

p 53 - Butte, Montana - 1950's
Lower photo - That looks like a Milwaukee USRA single sheathed boxcar, but there aren't three panels on the end and it doesn't seem to have 5-5-5 ribs. Any other thoughts on this one? The sill step looks odd as well, but that could have been a replacement.

p 54 - Brookemere, BC - June 1954
Canadian Pacific tank car - CP383565 (?) - I'm only beginning to understand tank cars, so this one is a mystery to me.

p 56 - Frankfort, Indiana - Spring 1945
Several images in "Building a Better Boxcar" offer glimpses of other cars in the background. The photo story is pretty interesting as NKP double sheathed boxcars are rebuilt with new steel sides and roof. In the background on p 63 is a NYC standard steel boxcar from the early 1920's that was based on the never-officially-used USRA design. The number seems to be 107127.

p 73 - near Redwood Valley, California - July 1950
A W&LE ARA boxcar in deepest California, four years after the Wheeling went to the NKP. It should be heading home soon to be repainted. Can anyone can identify the PRR boxcar behind it? It looks pretty new, or maybe it's just clean.

p 74 - near Cloverdale, California - A vague reference to 1952 in the text
Southern 261380 - Is this an ARA 1932 boxcar? The number doesn't match with the 1937 cars, even if it would be 262380. Those SP hoppers are interesting. Were these for stone or ballast hauling? Were they built this way, or cut down and modified from other cars?

More grist for the modeling mill!

Eric Hansmann
Morgantown, W. Va.

On Jul 24, 2004, at 5:57 AM, Eric Hansmann wrote:

p 50 & 51 - New Orleans, LA - October 1943
Top photo - On the far right, a New Haven 1937 AAR boxcar (80593) and a
well-worn CB&Q car.

NH would be 30593.

Regards,
Ted Culotta

A train to the left of the IC terminal sports a B&O M53 and N&W
X31-style round roof car. I'm at a loss for hte N&W car class here -

40-foot single door is class B-1
40-foot double door is class B-2
50-foot double door is class B-3

David Thompson

Eric Hansmann wrote:

p 74 - near Cloverdale, California - A vague reference to 1952 in the text
Southern 261380 - Is this an ARA 1932 boxcar? The number doesn't match
with the 1937 cars, even if it would be 262380. Those SP hoppers are
interesting. Were these for stone or ballast hauling? Were they built
this way, or cut down and modified from other cars?

Eric, I'll have to wait to see the magazine--mine hasn't come yet--but I don't know of any open hoppers on the SP roster which were "cut down" from anything else. They are likely 50-ton or maybe 70-ton ballast cars, of which SP had plenty.

Tony Thompson Editor, Signature Press, Berkeley, CA
2942 Linden Ave., Berkeley, CA 94705 www.signaturepress.com
(510) 540-6538; fax, (510) 540-1937; e-mail, thompson@...
Publishers of books on railroad history

On 24-Jul-04, at 8:57 AM, Eric Hansmann wrote:

Ben offered some interesting observations from "Pennsy Steam Years, Vol
1". I picked up the September 2004 issue of Classic Trains recently and
noticed several interesting freight cars in the backgrounds and
foregrounds. An Optivisor helps when viewing some of these images. Even
with the Optivisor, many car numbers are difficult to determine. I've
offered my best guesses in several cases below.

p 54 - Brookemere, BC - June 1954
Canadian Pacific tank car - CP383565 (?) - I'm only beginning to
understand tank cars, so this one is a mystery to me.

I don't have a copy of the book, so I'll have to go out on a limb here.

I would guess that the number is more likely 389565 (although 388565 is also a possibility). If the former, it would probably be a 10000 gal. ARA-II constructed by CP's Angus shops in 1912. If the latter, darned if I know!

Ian & Katherina Cranstone
Osgoode, Ontario, Canada
lamontc@...