Tim,

Thanks for sharing that photo.  Should have started a new thread.
That car was painted no later than March 1960.  Of course, not the repainted number or reweigh data.

I agree that the UP medallion in that photo could be construed to have Red stripes.  But the odds against that being so are incredibly high.  There never was a drawing issued for such a medallion like that with Red stripes.
Would be useful to see the original image, before it was subjected to the vagaries of scanning.  Somehow, the stripes are somewhat shifted from Black to Red.

A few of my clinics on my SmugMug site have a slide with the UP medallions and their dates of use. 
https://harley-trains.smugmug.com/PFEModels/PFE-Modeling-Clinics

And of course, all the medallions and dates are in the Painting book, which is arranged chronologically - and still available from SPH&TS.
https://sphts.org/product/southern-pacific-freight-car-painting-and-lettering-guide/


Cheers,
Dick Harley
Laguna Beach,  CA

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On Sun, Oct 16, 2022 at 10:20 AM, Tim O'Connor wrote:

has anyone compiled a chronology of the UP heralds applied to PFE reefers ? Here's a PFE ice reefer
in 1974 with a full color UnionPacificRailroad emblem. Was this car repainted ? It looks so unfaded.

Bob McKeen photo PFE 60051 Oct 8, 1974

Tim O'Connor
Sterling, Massachusetts

Tim,

And yes, there have been lists of paint and lettering changes compiled.
By Tony Thompson, Dick Harley, Ted Cullota I believe, and others.

The Reefer in the photo is an R-40-25.

Thanks for posting that great shot.

Dan Smith

 

Tim,

That UP shield is B&W. You can tell because it has 3 lines, Union
                                                                                            Pacific
                                                                                           Railroad

Color UP shield had 2 lines and no " Railroad "

Dan Smith

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Tim O'Connor
Sterling, Massachusetts

Yes, they had the color UP herald when built.
Just look at the 2 line UP shield. Read back along the thread too.

Dan Smith

Thank you Dick. Regarding the lettering: did the cars receive the colored UP herald as built in 1946? And in the regular SP(door)-UP(end) placement?
I ask this because it seems on the B&W pics the cars had B&W heralds.
The 1956 color picture shows the heralds in B&W too and the UP herald is next to the door here.
I presume this herald-switch was made in/after 1951? (since car 45698 has LA 5-56 stencil).
regards Fred Jansz

That is a great photo.  Thanks very much for sharing it, Richard.
I too kit-bashed one from an IMRC R-40-23.  Never got decaled, since I didn't have a 1950s photo of the lettering - now I do.  (What other excuse can I use?)

Some comments on what has previously been written:
1.  The aluminum ice reefers would not have been used as head-end cars because they had neither steam nor signal air lines, nor did they have high-speed trucks, all of which head-end cars needed. 

2.  The journal box covers appeared "silver" because they were made of aluminum.

3.  I agree with Dan Smith that the panel repair from the removed Preco mechanical fan on the car side is amazing.  The fan stencil to the right in the photo is an Equipco electric fan stencil.  This car had the original Preco mechanical fans replaced by Equipco electric fans in May 1956 - which is also the repaint / reweigh date.  The Equipco electric fan generators were located in the A-R corner of the car, and hence the Equipco fan stencils were in the A-R and B-L corners of the car (B-L corner is closest in the photo).  Preco electric fan generators were located in the A-L corner of the car.  I don't know why they were different - maybe a patent issue.

4.  Minor point, it was wrecked on March 8, 1962, but was listed as Destroyed in May 1962.  See attached copies of car card.

5.  The anonymous "conductorbig@" wrote: "These were the first two cars to be lettered in the postwar dual herald scheme."  
That is certainly not the case, since #45698 was built in September 1946, and plenty of R-30/40-21 cars had been painted in that scheme by then.  And many R-40-23 cars were built and so painted before #44739 was built in October 1947.
As Tony would say, "Check the book."

6.  The aluminum components were not highly polished, and were not anodized.  The exterior aluminum as coated with DuPont clear lacquer.  Exterior iron and steel components were painted Black, because it lasted longer and was a better rust inhibitor than Aluminum paint.


Hope this helps,
Dick Harley
Laguna Beach,  CA


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Tim O'Connor
Sterling, Massachusetts

Built after the 1945 built R-40-20 class, the postwar built aluminum cars were classified as R-40-14 rebuilds and assumed numbers from that class.  They reportedly used mostly all new components, but could possibly have used the centersills and other underframe parts from the cars originally using those numbers.

Although ends were the 3-3 improved Dreadnaught design shared with the 1947 built R-40-23 cars, both cars used all aluminum superstructures with all or part of the higher material cost over steel cars subsidized by the respective aluminum companies.  

1947 built Alcoa Aluminum car 44739 had distinctive long side sills running nearly to the bolster tabs, but side sheet rivet pattern appears to be similar to the various classes of 40’ steel ice cars.  1946 built Reynolds Aluminum car 45698 did not have these side sills, but did have a distinctive side sheet rivet pattern.  These were the first two cars to be lettered in the postwar dual herald scheme.  

Aluminum components appear to have been polished and anodized, steel components were painted black.  Galvanic corrosion between the aluminum and steel components was reported as a problem (reportedly less of a problem on the Alcoa car), but both cars had service lives of nearly 20 years indicating durability was not an issue.

Reynolds car was destroyed in a 1962 wreck on the Burlington RR.  Alcoa car was scrapped in 1966.

[ADMIN - Please remember to sign your posts with your full name.  Thx!]

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Tim O'Connor
Sterling, Massachusetts

Tony, I love your humor: "...First, it’s not quite unique as there were two of them...".
Two among -how many; 38000?- PFE cars.
Plus both were significantly different from each other, so yes, both unique cars
cheers,
Fred Jansz

One more photo.
Unfortunately, I received this lacking a date, location and photographer.
Bob Chaparro
Hemet, CA

Bruce Hendrick wrote:

Richard,

Thanks for sharing this rare shot of one of the two PFE aluminum cars in actual service. At the Corona Model Railroad Society’s 1949 railroad I placed this car in our long line of PFE reefers to break up the solid block of orange. I had a serious modeler tell me these cars were only used as headend express cars. Glad to have photographic proof of one in Grunt Work. It’s a good look and a good talking point.

Your “serious modeler” is seriously under-informed. The cars were neither intended nor used as head-end cars. They were simply part of the PFE fleet, experiments that were not repeated. The head-end idea may have arisen from a number of railroads that built aluminum BOX CARS for use as head-end cars. SP and UP did not do so.

Tony Thompson
tony@...

Bill Pardie wrote:

A great shot of ths unique car. It apparently has been is service for a while judging from the removal of the stripes in the reporting marks. The top of the hatch hints of how the roof has weathered. Also on the trucks on which the journal box covers were originally silver.

Two comments. First, it’s not quite unique as there were two of them; second, note it has the post-1948 UP emblem, not true when it was built in 1946. But it still has black hinges and sill tabs. It was destroyed in a wreck in May 1962.

Tony Thompson
tony@...

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Tim O'Connor
Sterling, Massachusetts

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Tim O'Connor
Sterling, Massachusetts

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Tim O'Connor
Sterling, Massachusetts

On Sun, Oct 9, 2022 at 02:05 PM, Richard Wilkens wrote:

In August 1956 photographer Dallas Gilbertson found aluminum refrigerator car PFE 45698 at Antelope, CA. Tom Dill Collection, Pacific Northwest Railroad Archive.

Richard Wilkens
Director of Collections
Pacific Northwest Railroad Archive

A couple of interesting items, to me, that I noticed about this great shot posted by Richard are;
 
1, There is no sign that I can see of a patch were the original mechanical fan has been removed from the left side of the car.
      A very nice repair indeed.

2, The fan stencil is on the right side of the car, right in the area of the dimensional data.
      Is this common for cars upgraded to electric fans ?

Dan Smith