"STN" number on Reading hopper


O

Orange Irish

Member
I have a batch of three old Stewart brand Reading 2-bay hoppers - HTs class with speed lettering and without the red "Anthracite" herald. Each has a "BLT" date of 5-44 on the lower right side, but on the lower left each shows a "STN" number of 4-63.

Does the fact that they have the speed lettering, no red herald, and the STN number mean they were modified or re-painted in 1963?
 
Orange Irish said:
Ok thanks, but what does STN stand for?
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Stenciling date. My guess. They used to stencil/re-stencil freight cars when they were re-weighed empty; the friction bearings were re-packed (change brass and waste cotton/lube); re-painted or re-built. This was an AAR (Association of American Railroads) Interchange rule.

I'm not a fanatic over stenciling, in HO as in most cases, I cannot read it unless it is magnified:D. So I presume that Stewart/Bowser in this case used something resembling the prototype. However, I'm not sure STN is in the Interchange Manual. (I do have an AAR Interchange Rule Book somewhere in my library). But I cannot find that either:D. Assuming it is a legitimate designation, my original answer stands.

BTW: I spent 42 years of my life working for the "railroad". I recall several incidents where improperly stenciled cars (Both with identical reporting marks and car numbers) showed up at the same location in Pennsylvania. If the Prototype can have erroneous data on it's cars, you can too.

Joe
 
Thanks again. The more I learn the more I find out some of my rolling stock is outside the time frame that I'm modeling. What's more frustrating is that I will now shop for rolling stock that I know was built in the proper time frame, but then after purchase see a re-build type date of 10-20 years later, throwing it all off. The only way to (possibly) see this fine print is on Modeltrainstuff.com or Ebay, since they have pretty strong zoom functions. Otherwise it seems like a crap shoot. Frustrating, but perhaps I'll take your advice and not sweat it too much.
 
That's the date the car was last re-weighed. It may or may not have been shopped and repainted at the same time.

The particular letters in front of the date are a code indicating the shop that did the weighing. I'm not a Reading expert, so I don't know what shop "STN" would translate to.
 
Ok. So any rolling stock that has a number code in the same form as the "BLT" date (month-year) on roughly the left side of the car was re-weighed (and possibly had other modifications) on that date? I'm not a rivet counter, but I can't exactly have rolling stock dated in the '60s behind a steamer from 1948.
 
There's ALWAYS a weigh code next to the CAPY/LD LMT/LT WT (all loading/weight information) below the car number.

When the car is brand new, this will say "NEW MM-YY". When the car is reweighed, this will say "XX MM-YY" where XX is the code of the railroad/shop that weighed it.
 
Gotcha. I've seen those numbers and I guess I have to pay more attention to those than the build date if I'm going to be semi-accurate with my modeling. Greatly appreciate the info.
 
WJLI26 said:
...

BTW: I spent 42 years of my life working for the "railroad". I recall several incidents where improperly stenciled cars (Both with identical reporting marks and car numbers) showed up at the same location in Pennsylvania. If the Prototype can have erroneous data on it's cars, you can too.

Joe
Click to expand...

There have been other "mistakes" on the prototypes as well. The NS had for a period of time a car that had two different numbers, one on each side.

It seemed that someone had tagged the car, and covered up one of the numbers in the process. So at one of the yards, someone went out with a set of stencils and re-applied the number. Trouble was, they reversed two of the numbers, and the car ended up with like 197456 on one side and 197465 on the other.
 
Cjcrescent said:
There have been other "mistakes" on the prototypes as well. The NS had for a period of time a car that had two different numbers, one on each side.

It seemed that someone had tagged the car, and covered up one of the numbers in the process. So at one of the yards, someone went out with a set of stencils and re-applied the number. Trouble was, they reversed two of the numbers, and the car ended up with like 197456 on one side and 197465 on the other.
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Not surprising. :D:D:D
 
http://www.atlasrr.com/special.htm

This is a link to a "special run" of hoppers that Atlas came out with. The version I have in mind is labled ARHS-03, and I would pay a left pinky finger to have them (maybe even my own...lol). I guess you can only order them through the ARHS website but it appears to be a broken link. A separate search for the ARHS doesn't mention these Atlas hoppers.

Is this special run long since gone, or does anybody possibly know if these are available anywhere in the four corners of the earth? If these are not available, I might try to snatch up a bunch of stock items and make a perilous attempt at painting over and changing the road numbers. Where would I find a stencil with the proper font to accomplish that, or would I be better off painting black over the road numbers and then applying a decal?
 
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