Charles Wales Photo, William Hopkins Collection, Washington, DC, 1948

The GN was allocated 1,500 USRA DS cars in 1919 that were built by Mt. Vernon. In 1923, the GN acquired an additional 1,000 cars that were almost identical, the biggest differentiating feature being 7/8 Murphy corrugated ends as opposed to the 5/5/5 ends on the true USRA DS Box Cars. As late as 1953, there were still almost 1,200 of the USRA cars and over 700 clones still on the roster.

The cars initially received the famous herald with what would become known as the 'Front Facing Goat'. In 1940, the herald was switched to the 'Side Facing Goat' (shown in the photo above).