Guys,
I surveyed a dozen photos of X43 sub classes to tease out dates for the
full length vs. under door side sill reinforcements. I find the earliest under
door job dated 5/61, and the latest dated 6/66. As for a date without
reinforcement I found a car repainted in 6/59 without it. Of course there is
nothing to say that the 6/66 paint job might not have been done after the original
work on the side sills, but I sort of think it was done at the same time. The
PRR didn't have the money to repaint cars every four or five years.
The full length bolster to bolster reinforcements were dated from 2/67 to
1/68 in my photos, indicating they were being done right up to the eve of the
merger at least. I didn't go into PC cars (out of the blog's era).
As for paint jobs all these cars had the plain Keystone with large gothic
lettering except for the 6/59 and a 6/61 dated car which were shadowed
Keystone cars. I think this later car had it's reweigh data done at the time of the
sill reinforcement, but was not completely repainted.
As for how universal the repairs were? I found only one car painted in
the Plain Keystone scheme without a reinforcement (date not visible), and that
car was parked as a storage car for so long it's paint had almost completely
left it.
X43 cars were acquired in two distinct groups. Five digit cars were
bought the old fashion way with car trusts, while six digit cars were leased. A
small triangle appears between the car number and road name to indicate
"segregated maintenance" of the leased cars. I've never seen exactly what different
maintenance program applied to these cars were, but when the leases ran out
they were all collected together in Hubbard, OH and cut up as a group (with a
lot of "triangle" X44 cars too). I was told by the wrecking crews that the hard
wood flooring in the cars was "brand new" and selling for a pretty penny to
dealers.
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