We have records of the large Litchfield order of 1879/1880 and the big UP car building/purchasing spree starting in the Fall of 1882 with boxcars 800-849 and coal cars 300-399. In between those orders--1881 and early 1882--there are no hard records that have surfaced, just newspapers. It appears, from newspapers and Ron Rudnick's research, in 1881 the South Park received/built refrigerator cars (26' cars in either the 5xx or 55x numbers), possibly stock cars and maybe a waycar or two (70? 71? 72? 73?).
The
Flume's report is interesting but hard to substantiate. A lead that needs digging into. The known South Park Journals that exist give freight car expenditures during 1881 that could be cars repaired or cars built--we don't know. Finding a slot for new cars in the numbering scheme is difficult as Ron Rudnick discusses in his Modeling Guide--there wasn't a logical slot available for some cars reported in the papers. But who knows?
I wonder if the
Flume is actually talking of the South Park adding sides to existing flatcars, as suggested by this
Flume article of June 16, 1881:
Dave Eggleston
Seattle, WA
Locked
