On another thread, Rick J. posted a picture of a NEW HAVEN box car that has the initials, number, and weight capacities on the right side of the door (when looking from the side).
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I always thought that this was supposed to be on the left of the door.
Was this just a common practice, or was it required at some point?
I have a couple of decal sets with large heralds like that NH car has, and this would make decal placement much easier.
-Kevin
Living the dream.
If New Haven did it, it must have been "legal".
If you want to do it, too, I think that would be "legal", also. Yes, unusual. But you already noted that.
If the New Haven car is dramatically out of your era, I can see your concern.
Is it?
Ed
"One difference between pessimists and optimists is that while pessimists are more often right, optimists have far more fun."
The Pennsy had house cars, usually automobile cars, with the lettering positioned the reverse of what might be called "normal"...
...and a quick check in a book of freight car photos showed similar examples from Wabash, Seaboard, Maine Central, New York Central, and Northern Pacific.
Wayne
doctorwayneThe Pennsy had house cars, usually automobile cars, with the lettering positioned the reverse of what might be called "normal".
On a double door boxcar that kind of makes sense. The car number can still be easily read with the door open.
7j43k If New Haven did it, it must have been "legal". If you want to do it, too, I think that would be "legal", also. Yes, unusual. But you already noted that. If the New Haven car is dramatically out of your era, I can see your concern. Is it? Ed
I also remember reading where the New Haven got in trouble with the AAR as the door covered the capy and load limity information, and they had to change the way the lettered the cars when they were repainted.
The Wabash was one railroad that many times reversed the normal layout and had the capy data on the left and the reporting marks on the right and there was no rhyme or reason which car was that way or the normal way. The Wabash also left a space between the last 3 digits of the car number and the leading digits.
Rick Jesionowski
Rule 1: This is my railroad.
Rule 2: I make the rules.
Rule 3: Illuminating discussion of prototype history, equipment and operating practices is always welcome, but in the event of visitor-perceived anacronisms, detail descrepancies or operating errors, consult RULE 1!
Gidday Kevin, this link should help you decal your free lanced cars, without having a guilty conscience!!
Hey Bear,
I have used that sheet as a guide for as long as I can remember. If you look over pictures of the freight cars I have posted, they follow those guidelines pretty close.
The exception is the flat cars. I letter mine differently as far as positioning goes. I just don't like where they say to put the loading weights. I have looked at lots of pictures of prototype flat cars, and these seem to be much more random for where data gets placed. Maybe because there is so little space and no door to obscure the data.
Thanks!
Canadian Pacific did it too with their 1970s-80s CP Rail "MultiMark" scheme.
The original design was to have the MultiMark (aka Pac-Man to some...) symbol to the B end of the car, so it would be to either to the left or right depending on what side of the car you were looking at.
Then repaints always started having the MultiMark to the left because it was easier for shop crews to mask around those two grab irons than deal with the entire full ladder, so the data usually ended up to the right.
http://canadianfreightcargallery.ca/cgi-bin/image.pl?i=cp17794&o=cprail
Chris van der Heide
My Algoma Central Railway Modeling Blog
From what I've seen, there were regulations requiring what data was shown (like capacity, light weight, build date etc.) but recommendations on where the information was placed on the car.