FRRYKid
...To clarify on the decals, the car I'm getting has the original data from 4-57. I figure the info will have changed over the years from the various reshopping especially for the 70s era that I model....
Don't let the re-weigh data mislead you: all that it indicates is that the car has had some sort of relatively minor modification which changed its LT WT (weight when empty) with a corresponding change in the LD LMT (load limit).
If, on the other hand, if the 4-57 represents the BLT (built date), it would be very unlikely to need changing, unless the car had been re-built: A shop could remove the sides, ends, and roof from a boxcar (like the fate of the prototype of the model shown below) and replace those items with new ones, yet the BLT date would not change unless the frame had also been modified. My model's prototype did get new sides, ends, and roof, but kept its original fishbelly underframe and its original BLT date.
For a car with a 50 ton CAPY (capacity), like NYC 45210, the sum of the LD LMT and the LT WT must be 169000 (there were different, but similar, standards for cars with different capacities).
However, the data shown on 45210 appears to be incorrect, as the total of those two figures is 177000. That's not a great disparity, but somebody wasn't very good at math, in my opinion. The LD LMT should be 109500 (if the weight is correct).
I model the late '30s and most of my cars have data representing re-weighing, which, in the year 1948 and earlier, was done at intervals of every 30 months.
Champ, unfortunately no longer around, offered re-weigh data, which included the symbols which represented re-weigh scale locations in much of North America, and those sets included the explanation that I'm offering here. The reweigh station (AJ) for this car was a Central facility, but I can't find my reference list for its actual location. The Champ sets also included the re-pack data (the info below the AJ).
The re-weigh intervals were increased in 1948 to 48 months.
Here's a re-worked Train Miniature car representing a NYC car built in 1918. The prototype of this car was rebuilt into a steel-sided boxcar in 1935...
The star beside the LD LMT indicates that the car's owner has reduced the load limit due to structural limitations or other reasons.
With the re-weigh date shown, it's a good bet that when it left the Town of Dunnville, where I took the photo, and returned to home rails, it likely would have been sent directly to the MDT shops for re-building as a steel boxcar.
Wayne