Does anyone have a date when the C&EI block lettering to the left of boxcar doors was introduced? Trying to date a photo.

Tony Thompson Editor, Signature Press, Berkeley, CA
2906 Forest Ave., Berkeley, CA 94705 www.signaturepress.com
(510) 540-6538; fax, (510) 540-1937; e-mail, thompson@...
Publishers of books on railroad history

On Dec 9, 2006, at 2:21 PM, Anthony Thompson wrote:

Does anyone have a date when the C&EI block lettering to the left
of boxcar doors was introduced? Trying to date a photo.

Tony,
I don't have an exact date when the change was made from the thinner
billboard "C&EI" stencils to the thicker block stencils, but the
earliest cars new cars having block stencils were some 50' double-door
cars (5000-5199) built 6-56 by AC&F. Earlier 50' box cars built 4-55
had thinner stencils. Thus, sometime between 4/55 and 6/56.
Regards,
Ed Hawkins

Ed Hawkins wrote:

I don't have an exact date when the change was made from the thinner
billboard "C&EI" stencils to the thicker block stencils . . .

I mean lettering about 20 inches tall, to the left of the car door(s). It looks relatively slender to this typographer's eye, so I'm not sure about "thinner to thicker."

Tony Thompson Editor, Signature Press, Berkeley, CA
2906 Forest Ave., Berkeley, CA 94705 www.signaturepress.com
(510) 540-6538; fax, (510) 540-1937; e-mail, thompson@...
Publishers of books on railroad history

Tony:

I believe that the style to which you are referring came into being at the beginning of 1937 with the C&EI's first 1937 AAR box cars.

Regards,
Ted Culotta

Speedwitch Media
645 Tanner Marsh Road, Guilford, CT 06437
info@...
www.speedwitch.com
(650) 787-1912

On Dec 10, 2006, at 2:39 AM, Ted Culotta wrote:

Tony:

I believe that the style to which you are referring came into being at
the beginning of 1937 with the C&EI's first 1937 AAR box cars.

That's what I thought, Ted, until I discovered that I have photos of the large C&EI stenciling on gondolas built as far back as 1910. However, I don't have any evidence of its use on box cars prior to the delivery of the 64000-64999 series '37 AAR cars in January of 1937. C&EI's USRA double sheathed box cars were built ca. 1920 without the billboard stenciling, but C&EI didn't keep those cars and in the 1920s and later its only double sheathed cars with flat side areas large enough for the big C&EI lettering were 36' cars, and I don't know whether the big lettering was applied to them. Other C&EI box cars were single sheathed, and there was a smaller version of the big initials that was applied to them. However, the earliest photographic evidence I have showing that usage dates from 1938 (on a car leased from Mather).

Richard Hendrickson

Thanks to Ed Hawkins, Richard Hendrickson and Ted Culotta for the help with my question.

Tony Thompson Editor, Signature Press, Berkeley, CA
2906 Forest Ave., Berkeley, CA 94705 www.signaturepress.com
(510) 540-6538; fax, (510) 540-1937; e-mail, thompson@...
Publishers of books on railroad history