Tim Gilbert wrote (in minor part):

Exotic schemes such as SP's orange bracing on the red
oxide Overnight cars which Tony Thompson showed in the proofs to his SP
Boxcar book in Cocoa Beach could be excluded . . .

Something has gone wrong with this info, Tim. Before WW II the SP "Overnight" cars were black (not oxide red) with orange trim striping and lettering. Braces were black like the rest of the car. The famous postwar black scheme had no orange on it, nor any braces.
The prewar scheme is indeed "exotic" in the sense that it was restricted to 1936-1942 and in that it was used for cars INTENDED to stay on-line, and of course in that it was applied to less than 500 cars. But it is not bogus or somehow fictional. SP modelers of that particular era probably would love to do, and legitimately could do, cars in that scheme. The rest of us would have to cook up a museum scene or equivalent.

Tony Thompson Editor, Signature Press, Berkeley, CA
2906 Forest Ave., Berkeley, CA 94705 www.signaturepress.com
(510) 540-6538; fax, (510) 540-1937; e-mail, thompson@...
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