Also, if you look at the upper right corner of the car, the color looks blackish or at least dark while the rest of the looks freshly painted. At least that is how it appears to me. Take Care, Brian

Plus there is snow at the top of the door track. Thanks, for the better quality picture, Bruce! Gary Laakso Northwest of Mike Brock

The pipe paint sprayer apparently was a common thing back in the day. I have seen photos of WM hoppers and N&W hoppers being painted as such. I can see this as a faster and safer way to cover

Sorry, Don, this was a common painting technique. Both SP and PFE used it, to name two. Tony Thompson

Don, I hope that you can appreciate that there are a lot of things that you have never seen that still manage to exist ;) Thank you for the alternative explanation of sand blasting, and it has merit,

In Terry Metcalf's Union Pacific 1936-1951 book, there is a photo of a guy painting a freight car while standing on the ground, and he's wielding a similar extension nozzle. .Presumably the color is

Oh, I should mention one other thing: I doubt this particular car got it's roof repainted: I've seen a few photos of freshly repainted steam era house cars where it's obvious the roof didn't get

Don, If you download the magazine article in Mr. Dorman's post above, there is a reproduction of a drawing from the August 1899 Railroad Car Journal showing just such a spray painting apparatus being

Hello Bruce, There is no speculation involved here at all. To me the man is NOT spray painting. Look hard at the equipment being used. Have your or anyone else ever seen a spray gun with a

I agree with Doug on almost all most points. I can't speak to the steel cars, but creating an accurate tabulation of just the 37' wood cars is worse than daunting. For reasons unknown, Swift (GA)

No, there is no such implication. That's what happens when you take things out of context. The thread was about the origin of the USRE "brand name". The TC cars

There is an error in Martin’s chart from his RMJ article, and maybe more than one. According to my 1943 and 1953 ORER the 8200-9699 series of Swift Meat Reefrs were RAM cars, ie equipped with brine

I noticed the Swift reefers in the table from the 8200-9699 series are RS and not RSM reefers. Does anyone have additional information on these cars? I assume they were used for boxed meat. Tim

Actually Epstein shows both 1930 and 1931. p. 44 “The Swift Line, acquired in 1931, is leased exclusively to Swift and Company. p. 95 writing about individual shippers who sought to have General

This is pretty interesting. Now I need to dig up the pair of hoppers from my stash and decal them for the TN Central so they can be used on a local model railroad. BTW, I’m sure there are at

-- My earliest photo of a car with the USRE "United States" map on the side is from 1962. The LS&I sold PS-1 box cars to USRE in 1961. And I have a note that says Tennessee Central 500-564 were leased

Make that 3.6. Interesting railroad, TC. Like they transplanted a small NE anthracite hauler to the South. Thanks for the photo. -- Ben Scanlon Tottenham, England

Epstein's GATX history lists it as 1930. But it also lists ownership of 11,296 refrigerator cars at the end of 1930 and 17,910 at the end of 1931, so they may not have officially transferred the cars

And the enlarged photo shows the two box cars ahead have some kind of roof hatches as well as other odd details. Brian Leppert Carson City, NV

Guy: In his 1993 RMJ article, Martin gave the sale date as 1931. Hendrickson and Kaminski's billboard reefer book gives it as 1930. My 12/30 ORER doesn't exhibit any hint of the sale, but Swift is