Friday, April 20, 2007

Unidentified

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Posted by Buckles at 4/20/2007 05:36:00 AM

3 comments:

Bob Cline said...

While I am not the train expert that Fred Dahlinger is, I'll give an educated guess that this photo was taken between 1915 and 1925. I have never seen a rounded gunnel on each end as these cars have but the Mt. Vernon railraod car company did make some of these shallow profile cars over the years. You can see the truss support system underneath as well as the snubbing post brackets. Although you can't see the chock blocks, note that nothing is chained down either. Again there is a chance that it only favors a Mt. Vernon car and might have been made by another manufacturer instead.
Hyla F. Maynes was a noted ride builder in the 1910 to 1920 era as well as Marcus Charles Illions being a renowned carousel builder and carver in the same time period. Illions had lost interest in the quality work he had done by the late 1920's and had closed his Carousel works for good. The great Stock market crash of 1929 destroyed him financially so that makes me feel that this photo is probably closer to the 1915 era than not. I can't find anything that says they teamed up together but then I can't find anything that says they didn't either.
The American Shows title is not a title mentioned in Joe McKennon's book "A Pictorial History of the American Carnival." Also with three wagons loaded instead of the circuses carrying the usual four wagons, indicates the flatcar is probably some of the older 50' length cars.
Just a guess on my part.
Bob

20 April, 2007 23:05
Anonymous said...

This is a photo of one of the Standard Steel Car Company flats built in 1911. Several were owned by Hyla Maynes and Harry Illions when they had their rides with RAS, an association that started in 1936. They painted out the "Royal" when they took the rides and flats off RAS and went elsewhere.

23 April, 2007 18:25
Bob Cline said...

Dear Anonymous,
Many Thanks for clearing this up. Since you didn't sign it, I have no idea whom to Thank.
Bob

24 April, 2007 06:07

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