Route cards, Part 14 — still more examples

This is the fourth post in a series which primarily displays a range of prototype route cards from the collection of Ralph Heiss. Ralph was kind enough to scan these cards for my use. The previous three posts, containing 20-some examples of cards, are at the following links:

http://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2016/07/route-cards-part-11-examples.html
http://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2016/07/route-cards-part-12-more-examples.html
http://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2016/07/route-cards-part-13-other-examples.html

The present post concludes this series with a number of additional cards, all of which appear to be intended for local switching (though of course it isn’t possible to be sure).
     This first group of cards contains a striking one with the blue diagonal stripe, a Pacific Electric card for automobile car SP 193787, to the Schrimp Co. in Los Nietos, California. The other two are Union Pacific cards, the one in the center marked to Fullerton, the one on the right for car CNW 3103, directed to Corn Products Refining Company.

     The next set shows some examples from widely separated places. The one on the left, from the Texas City Terminal Railway Co., is for empty tank car SHPX 9965 and the consignee is the G & C Chemical plant. The center card from the St. Louis-San Francisco is marked for zone 91, the Sherman Denison Subdivision (Texas). At right is a car from the Kansas City Terminal Railway Company, for car ATSF 93695, moving from Massey Concrete Products to the Santa Fe itself in Calwa, California (Fresno).

     Now I turn to a pair of rectangular cards, the one on the the left a UP card for car MP 87334, to be switched to Whittier Glass, while on the right is a Missouri Pacific card for District 9, Zone 4, C.M.O. North, but the consignee and car information has faded away.

     Another interesting pair of cards forms the next group. The one on the left is not identified by railroad, though it resembles SP and UP cards, and is clearly printed with Colton, a place served by both railroads. Contents are shown as merchandise. The number 90 may be a train or a switching zone. Another zone number is probably the meaning of the number 6 on the one on the right from the Central of Georgia, for PFE 66498, a load of lettuce.

     The next group is all Union Pacific forms, though all three are different. The one on the left, for car SAL 27460, is to Pacific Cartage and is stamped 292 and amended to 292-02, which I believe is a switch job. The center card is to hold a car, though no writing can be discerned on it, and the one on the right directs the car to be switched to UP North Platte.

     Finally, two more examples, both complex  and interesting, beginning on the left with a form from the New Orleans Public Belt Railroad, for car NP 27605, with a load of rubber from the Streicher Line, destined to Goodyear Tire & Rubber in Topeka, Kansas, moving initially via the T&NO. At right is a Minnesota Transfer Railway Co. form for car L&N 16614, carrying a load of Cream of Wheat to Philadelphia.

     All these cards are individually interesting, and in toto they amount to a fascinating insight (for me, anyway) into an important yet obscure process of identifying car movements. Many have a very bold number code on them, which could be discernible in HO scale, but many do not, and are probably acceptably modeled with a plain rectangle of paper, Practically all are white or manila, in the ones I have shown, but color photos from the transition era do show other color cards, pink, yellow, blue and green in examples I have seen. I continue to think that these are interesting items to add to your models!
Tony Thompson