The first rolling stock purchased by the Denver & Rio Grande were a series of four-wheel cars built by Billmeyer & Smalls of York, Pennsylvania. Inspired by the Ffestiniog Railway in Wales, there were ten boxcars numbered 1001 through 1010 and ninety flatcars and gondolas numbered 1 through 90. They were removed from normal freight service by 1883 but many survived as maintenance cars through as late as 1901.

This decal set is traced from builder's photographs of the cars and letters three boxcars and three flats or gondolas.