Joel Norman asked: "I've noticed in all the New England rail books in my library that any photo of a freight train having a VGN hopper (mostly quad hoppers)..."
First, the Virginian had ZERO quad hoppers. What you saw were triples or twins. See Frank Bongiovanni's spreadsheet and notes in the group files section for mre information on the Virginian's hopper fleet.
"...that the lettering is ALWAYS washed out...the photos are (or were taken) in the late 1940's into middle 1950's. Did this railroad use low grade paint or was it the nature of the coal (high sulfur?)or just a poor railroad?"
This is a common weathering pattern for VGN, N&W, and coal hoppers in general. The "poor railroad" theory is certainly bogus for the Viriginian and N&W!
"Other then builders photos has any seen photos of this railroads coal hoppers with the lettering not washed out??"
