http://gelwood.railfan.net/other/bo/bo910529as.jpg

When did B&O start applying the patches along the lower sill?
( About the same time as PRR? ) Would most cars have patches
by the late 50's?

Timothy O'Connor <timoconnor@...>
Marlborough, Massachusetts

Tom O'Connor asked:

When did B&O start applying the patches along the lower sill?
( About the same time as PRR? ) Would most cars have patches
by the late 50's?

Yes and yes. The photo evidence I have suggests that more patches turned
up earlier on the Pennsy cars because many X29s dated from 1924-'25 whereas
most of the M26 sub-classes dated from the late 1920s/early '30s. However,
patches began to appear on B&O cars before WW II and by the late 1950s
every photo I have of a B&O (or LNE, Erie, PM, MEC, CGW, etc.) ARA steel
box car shows extensive patching of the side sheathing above the sills.

Richard H. Hendrickson
Ashland, Oregon 97520