N&W in 1909--New cars

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Bluefield Daily Telegraph
October 16, 1909

CONTRACT LET FOR 500 CARS
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Norfolk & Western Awards Contract to American Car and Foundry Co.
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This Order, With Others, Assures the Starting of Car and Foundry Plant With Full Force of 2,000 Men
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MEANS GREATER PROSPERITY FOR CITY OF HUNTINGTON
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    Huntington, W. Va., Oct. 15--The contract for 500 new cars has been awarded by the Norfolk and Western, to the local plant of the American Car and Foundry Company, notice of the fact having been announced yesterday by John W. Ensign who wired his superintendent here to that effect.  The new cars are to be of steel under frame, forty tons capacity of the single stock car type.  Mr. Ensign secured the big contract for his plant after enormous endeavor and several days spent at the N. & W. headquarters at Roanoke, Va.
[The remainder of the article does not pertain to the N&W and is omitted here.]
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[The reference to "single stock car type" obviously refers to a single-level car for larger animals.  John H. White, Jr., in his monumental work, The American Railroad Freight Car, states, "In 1909 it was estimated that of the seventy thousand railroad-owned stock cars, about twenty percent had twin decks."  He further observes, "Because swine were commonly carried in two-deck cars, it seems correct to suggest that this was the earliest form of piggybacking."]

Gordon Hamilton
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