On Jan 10, 2005, at 9:21 AM, benjaminfrank_hom wrote:

Bruce Smith wrote:
I would agree and add that the paint out above the PENNSYLVANIA is
"AUTOMOBILES".  It looks like you can see the fresh paint where the
left 1/2 door was removed (note that the last letter or two of
PENNSYLVANIA appears brighter too)."

I disagree for two reasons:

- The paint out is too far to the left.  The "AUTOMOBILES" stencil
was centered above the "PENNSYLVANIA" as show in these photos:

True, but <G>... see below

- The original cars were not in the 120012-125000 series, but were
in three different series.  If a rebuiding rush job were the case,
the car number should be fresh as well.  Besides, the 1947 date of
the photo doesn't match up with the rebuilding dates, which was in
the mid-1930s.

I looked closer at the photo in question and now I would say that the
PENNSYLVANIA, car number and car data were all the same intensity and
are painted over a paint out area as well. This paint out area
extends further to the left on the car than the current lettering,
which would have made the lettering above more centered on the road
name. It appears that the road name wasw shifted to the right, once
the 1/2 door was gone, causing it to no longer be centered under the
"AUTOMOBILES" Thus, the paint out, the lettering and the paint on the
panel to the left of the door all appear to be the same age. Given the
weathering of the lettering, this was some time ago, but within a
reweigh (although as Jim Singer pointed out at Cocoa this week, reweigh
intervals appear to have been treated as "suggestions", not rules
<VBG>.)

Thus I still feel that the paint out is consistent with AUTOMOBILES and
conversion of this car from X28 to X28A.

In addition, I note that the car appears to have a door with a center
weld seam, meaning it was made from two of the 1/2 doors, and ... is
that a split KD brake under there still?

All of which calls into question a 1947 date...

Regards
Bruce

Bruce F. Smith
Auburn, AL
http://www.vetmed.auburn.edu/~smithbf/

"Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy" - Benjamin
Franklin
__
/ &#92;
__<+--+>________________&#92;__/___ ________________________________
|- ______/ O O &#92;_______ -| | __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ |
| / 4999 PENNSYLVANIA 4999 &#92; | ||__||__||__||__||__||__||__||__||
|/_____________________________&#92;|_|________________________________|
| O--O &#92;0 0 0 0/ O--O | 0-0-0 0-0-0

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