I suspect "in use" means they were still listed in the Official Register. Doesn't mean they ever turned a wheel that year. In fact, the WUTX cars are listed in the "List of Assigned Reporting Marks of Private Car Companies," but with a note that they "...are not registered in this issue..." in my 1944, 1953, and 1960 ORERs. WUTX disappeared entirely by the time of my 1970 edition.
So I'm even less sure about the source of the car count, because it's not in the ORER.
The ORER note applied to some other reporting marks, but they seem to be primarily obscure outfits that may not have had a car on the rails actively in some time.
Sure, we know some of these car still existed...but as far as WU was concerned, they may have already been written off, yet not disposed of. Hard to say. But I suspect it's a case where the paperwork wasn't keeping up with the facts on the ground.
Mike Lehman
Urbana, IL
My father, who would be 104 if he was still living, exclusively called telephone poles, telegraph poles. I have never received or sent a telegram,
Henry
COB Potomac & Northern
Shenandoah Valley
The only thing there is that both the Western Union article and the MR review said 20 cars were in use in 1960, and almost all the photos I've found show the cars as onesies. There is one photo of a car in the B&M yard in East Deerfield, MA in 1978, probably long out of service, but nevertheless it got there somehow.
Interesting question. There were a few of these cars on the narrowgauge in Colorado, including one that was abandoned at the limestone quarry at Monarch and at least one more that was adopted into Rio Grande MOW service after WU was done with it. This was circa 1950 and the WU cars had seen little service for years prior to that from what I understand.
On the standard gauge, my guess is that these cars saw their last substantial use during WWII, due to wartime requirements creating the need for added capacity, increased use, and additional maintenance. As a last hurrah, I suspect they may have been used to ship parts between WU depots or simply may have been held in reserve, but that had to have been very limited demand after the war.
Over the years I've found and restored two of the Ambroid 1 of 5000 Western Union Material Cars. Some web searching has brought up a few photos and a story in the Western Union technical journal about the original use of these cars. They were originally built by Western Union shops in Chattanooga for service in dedicated outfit trains that included passenger-style sleeping cars and other types of tool cars. These were used mainly in the 1920s and 30s to do heavy upgrades on Western Union telegraph lines built in the 19th century. However, by about 1960, there were no complete outfits remaining in the United States, but there were some individual material cars still in service. The photos I've found, including one in the February 1957 MR, seem to show these cars in the later service. A kit review in the November 1959 MR says there were 20 cars in this service at the time, but gives no other info.
Does anyone know exactly what service this was? It would be fun to be able to route a WUTX car on a layout according to the actual use these cars had in later years.