The very first ORER was issued on June, 1885 and was titled Sechrist's Hand-Book and Railway Equipment and Mileage Guide. Shortly thereafter it was retitled the Official Railway Equipment Guide, and was later renamed the ORER.
It's birth, contrary to popular belief, was not from an ICC directive, but rather came from the Car Accountants Association. As the railroads began to interchange cars, some of the railroads and Express company's began to exchange car rosters with each other. The car accountants began to push for a publication that brought all of the freight rosters into one source.
By 1884 there were two proposed publications, one by Mr. Sechrist and another by a Mr. Luce. Mr. Luce had the inside track as he was chairman of the committee appointed to look into a centralized publication. Mr. Luce did his best to ignore Mr. Sechrist and even went so far to begin publishing his own handbook, I have a report that the October, 1884 issue included a total of 45 railroads.
Mr. Sechrist in turn found an ally in the Railway Age, who noted in November 1884 that Mr. Sechrist's hand book was superior, as it included dimensions, capacities, mileage, interchange and junction points, and a list of railroad officials, and most importantly, the officers of the roads who were in charge of the rolling stock.
I have yet to find a copy of Mr. Luce's handbook.
As for narrow gauge roads, in the 19th century there were many that were listed, such as the Pittsburgh & Western / Havana, Rantoul & Eastern / Deadwood Central / Silver City, Deming & Pacific and even the Denver Circle.
Ron Rudnick
r upper hand 's
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