I have a question about FGE RBL cars that were leased to railroads.  As a general rule, it appears that they were assigned FGE numbers to go with RBNX reporting marks.  When they were leased to a railroad and that railroad applied their own reporting marks, were these cars built for the railroad with their reporting marks or did they operate as RBNX cars for a time until the railroad could apply their own reporting marks?  I am asking specifically about the C&EI fleet, but I suppose this would apply to all roads. 

Lee A. Gautreaux - the RailGoat
http://www.railgoat.railfan.net/

Lee - 

My understanding is - it depends.  Some of the original RBNX cars were repainted/re-lettered for the railroads as they were leased, yet there were some newer ones that were lettered for the railroads when they were delivered. Also, some leased cars did maintain their RBNX markings, and it appears the use of the railroad's markings started around mid 60's.

I don't have any source that gives specifics on any of this (still hoping the rumored FGE book gets completed and published one day), just what I've been able to piece together from various photos and books.

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Bill Parks
Cumming, GA
Modelling the Seaboard Airline in Central Florida

I hit reply too early.

Specifically for C&EI, I do have one source (a Bill Welch presentation) that includes a mid-1950s photo of an RBNX car that has been stenciled to return empty to C&EI at Chicago

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Bill Parks
Cumming, GA
Modelling the Seaboard Airline in Central Florida