General American Photo, Collection of Tony Thompson

The R-40-20 was a transitional design between the introductory steel design the R-40-10 and the R-40-23. One of the main changes that the R-40-20 ushered in was the use of fiberglass insulation as oppoed to the kapok or hair products of earlier cars. In addition, these cars were the first to use "herringbone" floor racks, basically the same wood slatted racks, but at approximately a fifteen degree angle, making it easier for hand trucks and crates to be more easily moved over the racks. The R-40-20 class employed 4/4 Dreadnaught ends with 'W' corners. The information about these buildings is profiled in the table below (all information presented here was gathered from Pacific Fruit Express, Second Edition, by Thompson, Church & Jones, from Signature Press)

Builder	Date	Series Start	Series End
GATC	1945	45701	46200
Mt. Vernon	1945	46201	46700
Consolidated Steel	1945	46701	46702