Reply to "Buy/Make Anything Cool Lately (Tinplate Version)"

Hi tinplate fans...I am posting some pictures here of a Lionel #800 boxcar that I did list on "Box Car Sunday" , however I wanted to discuss a small but perhaps interesting detail that I discovered on the car after study. Thought this thread being devoted solely to tinplate might have more interested members in what may seem as minutia.

Looking at the pictures.

Here is the interesting (and perhaps trivial) detail. In Greenbergs very complete book on Lionel O gauge from 1915-1928 he treats this boxcar in some detail. However he lists only two (2) variations on the rubber stamping (PRR) . The first from 1918, labeled configuration (F) he describes as having NO PERIODS in the stamping "PENN R R" . He then describes a configuration that he lists as (G) covering the period 1914-1925 ( yes it either overlaps or 1918 is a singular year, he does not say) which is stated to have THREE PERIODS , hence it would read "PENN.R.R." on both sides of the door. With a period after the N and after both R's. The Three Period configuration then continues until 1926 when this fellow was no longer available. The 1925-26 configuration had the item number #800 under the door vice on one end of the car as is shown below so clearly this car is pre 1925.

So - what's the big deal. Well my little car has TWO PERIODS and only on one side of the door. I thought at first this might just be an error in the stamping but both sides of the car are the same, the period after the "N" in PENN is missing in both places on the left and there are no periods at all on the right side of the door. While the picture does show this but believe me even investigation up close with a magnifying glass reveals the absence of any period either after the "N" on the left side and no periods at all on the right side.

OK I am a "trivia fan", what do you think, is this a factory error, one of, just a screw up of some technician...? I doubt the latter as the periods, however many there would be would be incorporated in the stamp. So this car was obviously stamped with a different stamp or a defective stamp. Anyway as a pre-war nut finding a configuration that might be undiscovered by as complete a source as Greenberg was kind of cool.

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