Rolling stock info

[WillPac]

I recently bought the book Railroad Rolling Stock by Steve Barry, hoping it was the tome I have searching for for oh so many years. And while it is a decent read, it lacks the details that I have longing to have in one source.

Things like:

• When did centerbeam flat cars first appear?
• When was the bay-window caboose introduced?
• When did the caboose fall out of use?
• When did boxcars first appear without roofwalks?
• When was the first mechanical reefer used?
• When was the last ice-cooled reefer used?
• Centerflow covered hoppers?
• rotary couplers?
• etc., etc., etc.

I have Kalmbach's excellent Diesel Spotter's Guide for locomotive info (the second edition, published well before the current rosters of Dash 9s and AC4400s, but good info on first and second gen diesels.

But does anyone know of such a source for the cars these engines pull? I know I can find the answers to questions like the ones I answered above, but I would prefer one book (or CD) that has this info, rather than hours of Googling.

 

[picture]

The answer to your third question in that bulleted list is late 80's to early 90's. Just depends on the railroad.

 

[whitepass]

I know of no one book that covers all that, you would need a lot of Official Railroad Guides, hope I got the name right. You can try here:http://www.railroadbooks.biz/