Still more route cards, Part 37

This post contains a number of additional route card from the Michael Litant collection, as has been the case for a number of previous posts on the topic. Michael retrieved these in mid- to late 1960s from freight cars, carefully chosen, he mentioned, to not be current in the location where they were, thereby not interfering in freight operations.

I’ll start with a good example of a card that happens not to be filled out. Probably this is because all that was needed was the code, PB-4, perhaps a outgoing train, or a yard track, or even a destination in a switching district. All these kinds of codes are known from other examples, but here even the issuing railroad is not identified. This car is 4 x 4 inches in size, and still holds a staple.

My second example, is an unusual card in this collection: it is a shipper’s card (provided by UP), presumably attached to the car so the railroad’s pickup crew will know what the shipper wants done with the car. Since the same information would be on the waybill, this card is a kind of insurance. The load is plastic bags for fertilizer, being shipped from the Federal Chemical Co. of Omaha, Nebr, destined to the Farmers Elevator Co. in Bode, Iowa via Rock Island. The car is NKP 18451, a 40-ft. steel box car with a 6-foot door. The card is 4 x 4 inches.

Next is another example a card whose issuing railroad is not identified. For use at the yard at Coquitlam, British Columbia, it allows grading of the car by interior integrity and cleanliness. Faintly one can see that Grade C has been circled. The card is 3 x 3.5 inches.

My fourth example is an L&N card which, like many L&N route cards, is printed in green. Though the station isn’t identified, the loaded car is Erie-Lackawanna 70377, a 40-foot steel box car with a 6-foot door. I don’t know the meaning of the district number HR 113. It is 3 x 4 inches. 

A further instance is a Missouri Pacific card, issued at North Little Rock, directing a car to the Terminal Railroad Association in St. Louis for interchange to the New York Central.  The car appears to be N&W 38532, though the number might be incomplete; if complete, it was a 70-ton steel hopper. The card was 3 x 5 inches.

Another interesting example is this card from Atlantic Coast Line, at Augusta, Georgia.  It carries the code PP and is 3.5 inches square. The car number appears to be D&H 17604, and if so, was a 40-ft. steel box car with a 6-ft. door.

Finally, one of my all-time favorite cards, because it shows an employee doing what he needed to do. It is a plain card (nothing on the back either), 3.5 inches square. The car number shown is AT (presumably ATSF, a common abbreviation) 151490, a 50-foot single-sheathed box car having an 8-foot door, and with a cargo of wool.  

As I have said many times, these cards, artifacts of bygone railroading, remain endlessly interesting to me. I have tried to use them and the information on them to learn more about freight car operations.

Tony Thompson