Richard Stern wrote:

That said, the comment about billboard reefers

being banned raises a

question in my mind . . . the reason the ICC

banned billboard ads on

freight cars was that shippers would often find

their shipments in

cars advertising their competitors.

The right answer, RIchard, would be to wait
a bit for the book
to emerge and read it for yourself, but in brief,
not only was this NOT
the reason, it was not even mentioned. The fact is
that the billboard
painting was done for cars under lease to a
particular shipper, not for
cars in general service.

IIRC, the ban did not affect cars in captive

service to a specific

shipper, nor to those owned by a specific shipper

and used only for

their products.

Not at first, but yes, over time an
understanding emerged that
long-term use or ownership of a car permitted the
owner to put logos on
the car, but NOT product advertising unless that
product, and only that
product, was going to be inside the car. For that
reason, all the meat
reefers quickly dropped mentioning individual
products.
For more, particularly about the rebating
practices which
ACTUALLY caused the ICC decision, I commend the book
to you.

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@signaturepress.com
Publishers of books on railroad history