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Strange Marks on Freight Cars

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  • Member since
    September 2003
  • From: California - moved to North Carolina 2018
  • 4,422 posts
Strange Marks on Freight Cars
Posted by DSchmitt on Thursday, January 4, 2018 8:58 PM

I tried to sell my two cents worth, but no one would give me a plug nickel for it.

I don't have a leg to stand on.

  • Member since
    December 2001
  • 3,139 posts
Posted by chutton01 on Thursday, January 4, 2018 9:33 PM

Hmm, when did they restore Magazine archives back on Trainlife?

  • Member since
    March 2002
  • From: Milwaukee WI (Fox Point)
  • 11,426 posts
Posted by dknelson on Friday, January 5, 2018 12:08 PM

I'd heard of Lionel's magazine but never saw a copy until now.  Neat stuff.

An interesting article.  I can remember seeing similar chalked marks on the sides of cars back in the 1960s and 70s, and I assume those might have been aids for assembling the train in a flat yard.  The photo in the magazine showed prior marks being crossed out but what I remember was a bunch of them still in place and I never could see how anyone could tell which mark was the controlling one.

The whole magazine was interesting, dating from a time when the boundary between toy trains and "serious" scale model railroading was pretty fluid.  (Note there is an ad for MR on page 32).  Anyone building that apartment complex would qualify as a serious modeler to be sure.

Dave Nelson

  • Member since
    August 2014
  • 251 posts
Posted by tedtedderson on Friday, January 5, 2018 7:12 PM

Awesome. Thanks for sharing! 

T e d

  • Member since
    November 2006
  • From: Northeast
  • 746 posts
Posted by GraniteRailroader on Friday, January 5, 2018 8:03 PM

When I first started switching in the mid 2000s, I'd do this as well. Marking cars for northbound interchange, southbound switcher, southbound manifest, and South interchange.

We'd go all day without looking at papers unless we had to yard a train once they were marked up.

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