Maybe a little more input on this subject here, I have a N&W 65 ’ mill gondola that has RO 2/65 on it. Does this mean this car was Repaired/Overhauled on this date.What are some other symbols that would be used ? Thanks for input, R
It’s easy to confuse the “built date” with the “new date”. If a car was built in say April 1960 it would say “BLT 04-60” and on the left side (that is, on a boxcar, it would be to the left of the door as you face the car’s side) and “NEW 04-60” on the right side. The built date never changes.*
The NEW date indicates the car was last weighed / repaired when it was new. If in Feb 1965 the car was sent to the shops for some repairs it probably would be reweighed at that time. The “NEW 04-60” would be painted over and the 02-65 reweigh date would be added in it’s place. At that point, most railroads replace the “NEW” with a 2, 3 or 4 letter abbreviation to show which shop did the work.
I would guess your gondola’s “RO 02-65” means the car was last repaired / reweighed at N&W’s Roanoake shops in Feb 1965.
BTW when buying pre-decorated cars, it’s always best to go by the reweigh date rather than the new date when determining what timeframe the car is meant to represent. For example, a car built in August 1928 might seem to be perfect for a c.1935 layout, but the car may have been shopped and repainted into a newer paint scheme in say 1950, meaning it would not be correct for a layout set earlier than 1950.
* Well OK it can happen that a car may be so completely overhauled that it is considered to be “Rebuilt” and then the built date could be replaced with “RBLT”. But generally the BLT date won’t change.
Like wjstix says, it’s not a new or built date. It’s a re-weigh date; when the car was reweighed to find its empty (aka tare or light) weight.
RO would be the initials of the shop that performed the weighing. Each railroad shop had a different 2-letter code.
Note also that this date has absolutely nothing to do with when the car was last painted. A car could technically be freshly repainted and have a weigh date 5 years old if it wasn’t reweighed again. Although typically a car would receive new paint after a full shopping, and would likely get reweighed at that time.
All this BLT talk is making me hungry. Do some checking though. I have some cars like this, PS2 hoppers to be exact, that have build dates of something/57 but redue dates of 65. As long as MILW kept the gray color of the hopper through it’s life span, all I would need to do is rub out the /65 date and I can model that hopper to be the build date year.
Not quite: You’d need to replace the “/65” with “NEW something/57”. [swg]
Wayne
If the lettering didn’t change I wouldn’t bother to remove the “65” date, I doubt anyone would notice it. (That’s one good thing about growing old, those tiny numbers don’t really matter unless you put on your magnifying glasses.)
Kind of off the subject, but not too long ago at Subway I ordered a footlong BLT. They asked what I wanted on it, and I said black olives and mayo. When I got home I had a sandwich that had only bacon, black olives and mayo on it. When I took it back they said they lettuce and tomatoes were “add ons” you had to request. I suggested that normally ordering a “Bacon Lettuce Tomato” sandwich would at least strongly imply that I expected bacon, lettuce and tomato to be on the sandwich…wouldn’t it??
[%-)]
It’s subway, you are expecting waaaaaaay too much. Try ordering a chicken bacon ranch or whatever it is. Unless you say “ranch” when they ask about sauces you won’t get it. Even though ranch is right in the dang name. Same goes for the sweet onion terriyaki chicken. You can get that with any onion what so ever!!!
My usual toppings are lettuce, tomato, mayo, peppers, and pepper jack cheese, always on italian herbs and cheese. One of my faves is the italian BMT with lettuce, spinach eaves, tomato, green pepper, provalogne cheese, and vinigrette. Usually when I get something it has mayo on, I used to put the chipotle sauce on everything, and it was always pepper jack cheese. Then there’s my old favorite. It used to be the only thing I ever got from subway. Turkey sub, on white, american cheese, lettuce, and mayo and bacon. As you can tell I’ve expanded. I got I think it was bmt once not sure, but I hade them put pepper jack on it, chipotle sauce, and a little bit off all the peppers (jalapeno’s, green bell, banana). Now that was a daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaang good sub. I got hooked on jalapone’s when I tried that 4 alarm burger, I think it was hardee’s, and well, it sure as heck wasn’t no 4 alarm. Even with a 1/2 inch thick pile of jalapanos on it. So now I usually put some kind of hot pepper on my subs.