From what I have read they were built in the ''late 1930's'' and lasted until the 1990's. The web has more info, just type in ''Carbon Black Railroad Cars'' and go from there.
The Mather cars would hold interest for me, and suspect a whole lotta more modellers, then a Sperry detector and a carbon black car. The Mather cars covered a range of railroads.
The Carbon Black cars were/are privately owned and could run on any road. That is not to say the Mather cars could not. But if your favorite road did not have Mather cars ( I don't know who did and who didn't just off the top of my head ) then maybe your second favorite road did. Either way they both would be considered ''foreign'' to the ''home'' road. I hope he does them both though.
Of course the Mather cars were subject to interchange too, so could show up from Pocatello to Poughkepsie, but the appeal of the Mather cars, for me at least, is that I could obtain the cars in my favorite roads, potentially. And just a passing thought, the carbon black cars might well have been in more restricted service. What the heck was carbon black used for........toothpaste? (joke, joke!)
The web has more info, just type in ''Carbon Black Railroad Cars'' and go from there. For information about them. Just a slightly different look in your consists.
