Ben Hom wrote:

During the early 1950s, the Santa Fe
rebuilt the ice hatches on SFRD reefers to better accommodate crushed icing,
changing the arrangement from the hatches opening towards the ends of the
car with stops keeping open hatches in a vertical position to the hatches
opening towards the center of the car to lie flat against the roof.

The reason, as I'm sure Ben knows, but doesn't say clearly, was the introduction of icing machines, which passed over the car roof, and would have been interfered by hatches standing vertically.

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 Feb 10, 8:52pm, Benjamin Hom wrote:

Subject: RE: [STMFC] RE: More modeling resources

That being said, it wasn't unknown. Santa Fe stenciled the reporting

marks

and car number on reefer ice hatches.

And PFE stencilled the car number on the roof of SOME of their reefers
(see the PFE book for photos).

But for reefers, it makes a lot of sense -- there's a darn good reason to
be on the roof (the ice hatches) and a good reason for those people on the
roof to know what car they're icing (different requirements for different
loads).

I don't know why one would want this info stencilled on a box car (except
for the one-off accident investigation Ben mentioned).

Regards,

-Jeff

--
Jeff Aley jaley@...
DPG Chipsets Product Engineering
Intel Corporation, Folsom, CA
(916) 356-3533

Ray Breyer asked:
"Interesting photos on the UofP site, especially this one:
http://images.library.pitt.edu/cgi-bin/i/image/image-idx?sid=b06d7fbde23ef4d
671cdb362bae7d08b;xc=1;g=imls;q1=rail;rgn1=ic_all;c=rr;evl=full-image;qualit
y=2;view=entry;subview=detail;lasttype=boolean;cc=rr;entryid=x-8223.1292.rr;
viewid=1292RR.TIF;start=21;resnum=30

I've never seen a photo of a boxcar with it's number on the roof. Anyone
know how common this was?"

Not very common at all. Note that the reporting marks and car number are
only chalked onto the roof, not stenciled. Based on the caption of the
photo, I speculate that this photo was taken for accident investigation
purposes (perhaps involving a brakeman riding on this car), and the
photographer needed to clearly identify this particular car.

That being said, it wasn't unknown. Santa Fe stenciled the reporting marks
and car number on reefer ice hatches. During the early 1950s, the Santa Fe
rebuilt the ice hatches on SFRD reefers to better accommodate crushed icing,
changing the arrangement from the hatches opening towards the ends of the
car with stops keeping open hatches in a vertical position to the hatches
opening towards the center of the car to lie flat against the roof. This
obviously obscured the car numbers on the hatches, so the Santa Fe painted
the reporting marks and car numbers on either side of the running board near
the center of the roof.

See Richard Hendrickson's Santa Fe Painting and Lettering Guide Vol 1 and
Jordan/Hendrickson/Moore/Hale's Santa Fe Refrigerator Cars for more
information.


Ben Hom

Interesting photos on the UofP site, especially this one:

http://images.library.pitt.edu/cgi-bin/i/image/image-idx?sid=b06d7fbde23ef4d
671cdb362bae7d08b;xc=1;g=imls;q1=rail;rgn1=ic_all;c=rr;evl=full-image;qualit
y=2;view=entry;subview=detail;lasttype=boolean;cc=rr;entryid=x-8223.1292.rr;
viewid=1292RR.TIF;start=21;resnum=30

I've never seen a photo of a boxcar with it's number on the roof. Anyone
know how common this was?

Ray Breyer

Folks;

I just wanted to bring to your attention my current most-used resources
for modeling motivation and ideas, with the hope that you might find
them to be the same.

First, there is a series of books published by Morning Sun on Trolleys.
My favorite is the one by Bill Volkmer on western Pennsylvania (Vol.
3?). I have just about worn it out paging through it. The fact that
these are extraordinary photos, in color, of streetcars, streets, cars,
people, advertising, and buildings, as opposed to shots only of
equipment, makes it invaluable to me in getting colors, backgrounds, and
general settings "right". At least in what I aspire to! Shots that
show what is behind a subject are so rare, in particular color shots
that stray outside the right-of-way, that I find I am using it more and
more as a reference. A couple shots were worth the entire price of the
book. I found that the book is still available out there.

The other is something I keep browsing, and have a growing list of
copies from, and that is the University of Pittsburgh's digital library.
There are hundreds of wonderful photos (albeit in B&W) that show
numerous subjects you might like. They have many photos from the P&LE's
photo library now scanned, and I have found numerous mislabeled photos
that show freight cars in situations in which I have never seen them.
There is a great shot of an old P&LE box in the "Serves the Steel
Centers" scheme being cut and spliced into a longer version, as just one
example. They also have numerous artistic shots from the collections
that have, that can be reproduced by them in large formats. Just the
ticket for your office wall!

I am not involved with either of these enterprises, but I thought those
of you that are modeling the entire locale might like to know of these
great resources.

Have a super day,

Elden Gatwood