Herb,
Please tell me more. I'm not saying you aren't correct, but the photos would suggest the 'conventional wisdom', may not be an urban legend. By no means an exhaustive search, but here's what I found in the way of photos in a short search:
Thode, Jackson C. *George L. Beam and the D&RG,* Vol. 2, p. 19. Photo of No. 1587 being rebuilt at Alamosa. The high stakes are in place on the entire side of the car, ready to put on the fifth board. No evidence of splicing stake extensions onto the original short ones.
Grandt, David, *Narrow Gauge Pictorial,* Vol. 3, as listed below, all show cars with no spliced stakes, suggesting they were rebuilt that way in the 1920's:
p.49: 1551 at Sapinero, 1939.
p.54: 1636 at Dolores, 1940.
p.58: 1656 at Durango, 1958.
p.59: 1667 at Salida, 1951.
p.64: 1800 at Durango, 1948.
p.68: 1881 at McPhee, 1930.
p.82: 9325 at Salida, 1956.
p.83: 9548 at Durango, 1963.
p.86: 9536 at Sapinero, 1939.
The photo of 1881 is interesting - two other cars, all three loaded with ties, all have unspliced stakes and five-board sides.
There are other photos of trains in motion that appear to have high side gons with unspliced side stakes, my general impression is that there are more cars with unspliced side stakes before World War II than after.
OK gents - Herb raised a good question. Anyone got answers in the form of AFE's, rebuild specs, etc? Inquring minds want to know, and all that. I'm still inclined to go with the theory that the barrel transfer damaged the top board as well as well as the top of the stakes, causing the spliced stakes as a form of repair to fix the damage without replacing the entire side stake.
Thanks for reading!
Charlie
