Some additional information on Placards. I have been doing research for an article on placards. My former career was teaching Hazmat so I had an interest.
The earliest placards I could find were from 1903. The earliest regulations I could find were produced in 1908 by the ARA.
I posted photos of some of the placards and pages from the 1908 regs in a folder called Paul's Placards. I have data and placards from 1903 until present day but they are in storage. Some day I will dig them out and get the article written

Paul Deis
D&P Mountain Railroad
curlyp2@...
http://web.mac.com/curlyp

Paul,
Thanks for the folder. Empty. Waiting for approval? Probably.

I look forward to the results of your 'archaeology'. And keep
us posted on when and where the clinic will be presented. *G*.

- Jim

Paul Deis wrote:

Some additional information on Placards. I have been doing research for an article on placards. My former career was teaching Hazmat so I had an interest.
The earliest placards I could find were from 1903. The earliest regulations I could find were produced in 1908 by the ARA.
I posted photos of some of the placards and pages from the 1908 regs in a folder called Paul's Placards. I have data and placards from 1903 until present day but they are in storage. Some day I will dig them out and get the article written

Very interesting stuff, Paul! I will look forward to seeing those placards and regulations. Maybe you know, regarding the pre-1960 placards: were they always printed the same way, such as all-black lettering or all-red, or, as I suspect, were they not always consistent? I mentioned my uncertainty about this in my blog post. Obviously this affects what kind of placards we want to put on our models.

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 no longer have the source material in my possession, but as I recall, at least for explosives, the pertinent Interstate Commerce Commission regulations during World War II (Par. 909) specified both the color of the placard and the color of the printing. The explosives placard was yellow with mostly black printing; the word "EXPLOSIVES" and the phrase "KEEP FIRE AWAY" were printed in red. The placard included a condensed list of the rules for handing cars loaded with explosives.

Best wishes,

Stuart


Stuart A. Forsyth
forsyth@...

On Mar 20, 2012, at 11:09 PM, Anthony Thompson wrote:

Paul Deis wrote:

Some additional information on Placards. I have been doing research
for an article on placards. My former career was teaching Hazmat so
I had an interest.
The earliest placards I could find were from 1903. The earliest
regulations I could find were produced in 1908 by the ARA.
I posted photos of some of the placards and pages from the 1908 regs
in a folder called Paul's Placards. I have data and placards from
1903 until present day but they are in storage. Some day I will dig
them out and get the article written

Very interesting stuff, Paul! I will look forward to seeing
those placards and regulations. Maybe you know, regarding the pre-1960
placards: were they always printed the same way, such as all-black
lettering or all-red, or, as I suspect, were they not always
consistent? I mentioned my uncertainty about this in my blog post.
Obviously this affects what kind of placards we want to put on our
models.

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

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