Route cards, Part 31: Grading box cars

I have posted previously about this topic, grading the condition of box car interiors so they are suitable for particular commodities. I was recently given a copy by Michael Litant of a Union Pacific employee document for this work, which forms the subject of today’s post. My previous posts contained quite a few examples of the cards attached to cars to indicate their grade, usually to route card boards, thus the series topic above. I list five of these below. 

https://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2023/07/route-cards-part-19-grading-freight-cars.html

https://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2023/08/route-cards-part-20-more-grading-cards.html 

https://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2023/09/route-cards-part-23-varieties-of.html 

https://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2023/09/route-cards-part-25-still-more-grading.html

https://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2023/10/route-cards-part-27-back-to-grading.html 

Below at left is the cover of this screw-post UP book, 4.5 x 7 inches in size. At right is the first page, describing the contents. I will be posting the entire contents on Google Docs, but will show a few pages here to indicate the scope. (You can click on the image to enlarge it if you wish.)

Then pages 4 and 5 give a verbal description of the inspection process, referring to the UP grading card, Form 4151-1, which I will show blow. 

Both sides of the card itself, probably reproduced full size at 3.25 x 5 inches in dimensions, are shown  below, pages 6 and 7.   

Lastly for now, I show here a bit more of the instructions including grading specifics (page 9), referring to car interior photos on following pages. The photos are washed out and pretty uninformative, so not presented here.  

The instructions essentially state that the card should be attached to the car with the uppermost side being the type of grade.  Below is an example used card (Litant collection), slightly different in format and listing different commodities than the ones shown above, dated July 12, 1968 and stamped by the inspector, A. Lish, at Pocatello. 

I continue to find car grading an interesting topic, even though it is rarely applied in model railroading. Good to see all kinds of prototype practices, even if we don’t use this particular one. 

Tony Thompson