I searched around a bit, and I couldn't really find an answer for this... tried to figure it out from photographs, generally failing. I know regular freight cars have an "A" end and a "B" end... and IIRC, the "B" end is usually the end with the hand brake wheel... On an articulated well car, this appears to translate into "A", "B", "C", "D", and "E" wells... I *think* that the "A" and "B" wells are always the ends, and the "C", "D", and "E" wells are in the middle... Is there any particular ordering to the lettering within the set? Is it always "ACB" or "ACDEB" (alphabetical except for B)? Something else? On the articulated wells that are really multiple single-well cars tied with drawbars, all the wells have brake wheels... how do they choose A vs B? Just convention? On the articulated wells that are truly articulated (shared trucks between the middle wells), do the intermediate wells have brake wheels, or just the end platforms? Inquiring minds want to know... Thanks!! - TD
TwinDad, It's been a while since I was around the equipment, but here goes, from memory. All units in a drawbarred set would have brakewheels, as they could be later separated if necessary, and run individually. (These would also have "ghost numbers" assigned to them for this.) For truly articulated cars, the A and B wells would be the end units, with the B unit also the B End. This is also stenciled on the end unit. As for labeling, intermediate platforms (in restricted equipment parlance) would continue from the B End and going toward the A End. Thus, a five-well car would be A-E-D-C-B. Dieter
Thanks. That's close enough for me, and matches up with some of the actual photographs I was getting confused by.