Re: Just got off a coal train from Crested Butte

Herb,
I went back and looked at Vol 3 myself. All the splices fit your description, i.e the short stakes are level with the top of the 4th board. But, let'st look at the dates on those photos. Most of the cars with unspliced side stakes are from the period before 1945. However, I have not found any photos of the cars with spliced side stakes from 1930 or so. That is what suggests to me that the standard practice was new, full length stakes when the cars were rebuilt in the 1920's.
Again, my question is: do you have an AFE, or recollections of a shop man, or what to support the view that the splicing of stakes was the standard for rebuilding the cars in the 1920's? Not meaning to be dogmatic, but I am curious, and would like to know. The photos that I've found in the various books seems to support my theory, the 'conventional wisdom' that you referred to as an urban legend. It may be - but I'd like a bit more evidence before dropping the theory, which seems to fit the photographic evidence.
Thanks for reading.
Charlie