I have been studying Randall Danniel's books on CB&Q waycars (especially the 28-foot and 30-foot wooden cars) in hopes of building some models, but have come up with a few questions that I cannot answer totally from the books:
Did the waycar paint scheme shift from mineral red to Chinese red about 1958, in about the same time frame as freight cars? Is that the same time the lettering style changed from Railroad Roman to the more Gothic style?
It looks to me like the more common herald was the rectangle without the black background, but some heralds seem to have a black background. Was this something that was changed at a particular time, or was this at the whim of the paint shops?
I am guessing, solely because of their age, that these cars would have had K-style brakes early on, but most of the photos I've seen were taken later, and show AB brakes. Was their a time where these started to be changed over?
The early diagrams (p. 68 of the drawing book) appear to me to show truss rods on the NE-1 waycars, but I can't seem to find any photos of these cars with truss rods. Were they that way early, then later receiving steel underframes?
Did the CW-series of drovers cars have steel center sills, or were their center sills wood?
Thanks in advance for any help you can provide.