[Mike/ wanswheel - Thanks so much for digging out and posting those photos and that article ! [bow] I owe you one for this (again ?). I’ve never seen them or a reference to them before, so this has to be one of the best abnd earliest documentatins of railroad containers. Just read through that article - it could have been written in the 1950’s about TOFC, and in the 1980’s about COFC . . . For anyone interested in the history of containerization, these are the equivalent of the “Dead Sea scrolls” !
I’ll concede the 1930’s date for the photos, based on your dating them from the presence of the High Line (what a great structure and project !) - I’m not familiar enough with it to know any different (nor would i want to), I’m more than content enough with the January 1921 dates in the “Shipper & Carrier” magazine article from its March 1921 issue to establish that as the likely dates of commencement of container service, as I stated above.
Likewise, I have to defer to your identification of those landmark buildings in that one photo - I can barely pick them out of the haze. But no one has remarked on the early diesel (?) loco in this photo - which one do you think it is ?
It’s ironic that the interloper PRR tunnelled under the NYC’s yard . . .
And yes, zugmann, the PRR did have similar containers ! From some very quick and limited research, here are a couple links to more information from a model manufacturer’s website, including a reference to a 1985 PRR T&HS publication on the containers