West side lumber flat cars

In looking at the available roster information that Ican find on the West Side's 24 foot flat cars, it would seem as though the cars were numberd sequentially as they were built, ie car 246 would have been built after car 245 etc.

This raises a couple of questions;
First does anyone know if my assumption about the construction of the cars is correct and second, were all 300+ of the cars on the roster at the same time, or did the West Side retire a car as it wore out, recycle the metal parts into a new car and then give the new car a new number?

looking at West Side 297, which I am guesing was built in the 1940's, it would appear as though a lot of recyling was going on as the draft gear appears to be ancient components rivited to a new mounting system, the wheels date from the 1920's and the various washers on the car are amixture of new(at the time of construction) bridge washers and older railroad car washers. The brake rigging also appears to have ben around for a lot longer than the car.

thanks to anyone who may have some thoughts on this bit of trivia.

Jason Midyette