Might anyone be able to help me with finding ORER info for Canadian Pacific automobile boxcars? I need 1934 and 1936 ORER data for just the CPR automobile boxcar pages. I am doing some research on CPRs steel frame autocar rebuilds and I can't find these ORER years for sale anywhere.

Many thanks,

Jonathan McConathy
Boston, MA

The Library at the Colorado Railroad Museum has one issue of the ORER for each year published. They will copy pages for 30 cents each plus postage.
 
Also have bound back issues of MR, RMC, Railway Age, Mainline Modeler,etc.
 
E-mail address is info@....
 
Direct phone to Library is 720-274-5148. Hours are 11-4 Tuesday through Saturday

 
Chuck Yungkurth
Boulder CO

There's a complete set of ORERs, month by month going back to at least 1886, on microfiche at the Science, Industry & Business Library (SIBL) of the New York Public Library. SIBL is located at the corner of Madison & 34th Street, an easy walk from Penn Station. I don't recall whether you have to call ahead to have them ready when you arrive.

I don't know if they've shared these with any other libraries, but it would be worth checking.

Bob Karig

I have a copy of the May, 1934 ORER, but have never been able to locate one from 1936. I can make a few copies if desired.

A.T. Kott

Chuck Yungkurth wrote:

The Library at the Colorado Railroad Museum has one issue of the ORER for each year published. They will copy pages for 30 cents each plus postage.

Going back how early, Chuck? I'd sure like to find more 19th century issues available somewhere convenient.

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

bob_karig wrote:

There's a complete set of ORERs, month by month going back to at least 1886 . . .

Since it began in 1885, that's about as far back as is possible <g>.

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

The Green Library of Stanford University in Palo Alto, California, has a large collection of early issues, the earliest being under the original title of Sechrist's Hand Book and Railway Equipment and Mileage Guide. When I enquired at the end of last year for the CB&Q pages from 1886 and 1889 (obviously for freight cars still on the roster in 1901), I found that they didn't have a copying service, and I thought it was a bit far to travel!

Rupert Gamlen
Auckland NZ

Rupert Gamlen wrote:

The Green Library of Stanford University in Palo Alto, California, has a large collection of early issues, the earliest being under the original title of Sechrist's Hand Book and Railway Equipment and Mileage Guide.

I know this well and have in fact have "visited" these issues; but they no longer do or permit copying from these rather fragile volumes. Luckily the Xerox copies Kyle Wyatt made years ago still exist, and were actually used by Al Westerfield for his 19th century CD issues of the ORER. Wish I had more years, though.

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

I want to thank all of you for the generous responses regarding ORER sources. I certainly have gotten what I need.

Jonathan McConathy
Boston, MA

FYI, last time I visited the library last year, they had a severe shortage of microfilm readers. Got my ORERs in about 15 minutes but I never got a reader. Hopefully they've corrected this problem.


Roger Hinman
On Apr 1, 2010, at 6:18 PM, bob_karig wrote:

There's a complete set of ORERs, month by month going back to at least 1886, on microfiche at the Science, Industry & Business Library (SIBL) of the New York Public Library. SIBL is located at the corner of Madison & 34th Street, an easy walk from Penn Station. I don't recall whether you have to call ahead to have them ready when you arrive.

I don't know if they've shared these with any other libraries, but it would be worth checking.

Bob Karig

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Tony:
 
Checked out the ORERs at the Co RR Museum yesterday. The only ones prior to 1900 they have are:
 
1888
1893
Feb 1898
Sep 1898
 
From 1900 on there are only one or two gaps but they are pretty much all there, one for each year.
 
BTW  Duplicate ORERS often show up in the annual mail order book auction. I beleive the current one is almost over but you can see what is on the current auction listing by going to the Museum website.
 
Chuck Y
Boulder CO