Can anyone comment on what the color of Swift reefers was just after
the 1938 cutoff on billboard schemes, and perhaps when the earliest of
the red scheme cars appeared. Thanks Guy Brooke

On Nov 6, 2008, at 12:25 PM, comox11 wrote:

Can anyone comment on what the color of Swift reefers was just after
the 1938 cutoff on billboard schemes, and perhaps when the earliest of
the red scheme cars appeared. Thanks Guy Brooke

Yellow sides, mineral red roof and ends, black underframe and
trucks. The all-red scheme did not appear until late 1949/early 1950.

Richard Hendrickson

Thanks for the quick reply, is this the version with the Swift logo on
the right side of the car in white letters on a red rectangle? Guy Brooke


--- In STMFC@..., Richard Hendrickson <rhendrickson@...>
wrote:

On Nov 6, 2008, at 12:25 PM, comox11 wrote:

Can anyone comment on what the color of Swift reefers was just after
the 1938 cutoff on billboard schemes, and perhaps when the earliest of
the red scheme cars appeared. Thanks Guy Brooke

Yellow sides, mineral red roof and ends, black underframe and
trucks. The all-red scheme did not appear until late 1949/early 1950.

Richard Hendrickson



[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Guy Brooke asked:
"Thanks for the quick reply, is this the version with the Swift logo
on the right side of the car in white letters on a red rectangle?"

Yes.


Ben Hom

No. The yellow sides with red and white Swift emblem did not appear
until 1948 (?) or thereabouts - all I know is that is it too "modern"
for me. In the late 1930s through the war years, they had plain
yellow sides with black stenciling.

Regards,
Ted Culotta

Speedwitch Media
645 Tanner Marsh Road
Guilford, CT 06437
(203) 453-6174
info@...

On Nov 6, 2008, at 4:10 PM, Ted Culotta wrote:

No. The yellow sides with red and white Swift emblem did not appear
until 1948 (?) or thereabouts - all I know is that is it too "modern"
for me. In the late 1930s through the war years, they had plain
yellow sides with black stenciling.

Ted's right; the earliest photo of a car with the rectangular red
Swift emblem is dated 8-49. Earlier cars, dating bacvk to the 1930s,
had "REFRIGERATOR" stenciled to the right of the doors and "SWIFT
REFRIGERATOR LINE" above the reporting marks to the left of the doors.

Richard Hendrickson

Richard Hendrickson wrote:
"Ted's right; the earliest photo of a car with the rectangular red
Swift emblem is dated 8-49. Earlier cars, dating back to the 1930s,
had "REFRIGERATOR" stenciled to the right of the doors and "SWIFT
REFRIGERATOR LINE" above the reporting marks to the left of the doors."

Richard and Ted, thanks for the correction I had forgotton about the
1930s scheme - the dangers of firing an answer off the top of my head
while on travel.


Ben Hom

Guys,
The Burlington Bulletin #28 (I don't know the date on this copy) on page
61 has a lettering arrangement for Leased Swift cars, circa 1932. These were
former PRR class RF reefers, leased from National Car, which in turn got them
from parent company FGEX. It shows the lettering as black on a yellow car
side. The lettering is the full sized billboard "Swift" with "Premium Ham" in a
block centered over the Swift name.
Rich Burg
**************AOL Search: Your one stop for directions, recipes and all other
Holiday needs. Search Now.
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Rich Burg wrote:

The Burlington Bulletin #28 (I don't know the date on this copy) on page 61 has a lettering arrangement for Leased Swift cars, circa 1932. These were former PRR class RF reefers, leased from National Car, which in turn got them from parent company FGEX. It shows the lettering as black on a yellow car side. The lettering is the full sized billboard "Swift" with "Premium Ham" in a block centered over the Swift name.

This is, of course, a billboard scheme from the era prior to the ICC ban on such schemes. (Several similar Swift schemes are shown in the new book on billboard reefers.) But I believe the original poster wanted to know about post-World War II cars.

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@...
Publishers of books on railroad history

What color should the roof be on my Sunshine 2500 series car? (I am on another reefer jag, so I might actually get a few built!) Instrucions say black, I have heard BCR?

TIA,
Joe Binish

Well Ted, let me also step in here to add a little corrected information on
the Swift cars in the earlier paint scheme. I would not want anyone to get
confused with the body color given in an earlier post by Richard
Hendrickson. The car body was painted a Yellow-Orange, not a reefer
yellow color by General American, who by the 1930's was the owner of
the Swift fleet of cars, leasing the cars back to Swift for use.

Happiness, Jerry Stewart

Woodstock, Illinois