Another Dallas Gilbertson image of PFE 901, 902 and 903 at Santa Maria, CA in May 1953. Tom Dill Collection, Pacific Northwest Railroad Archive.

The PNRA is fortunate to have photo descriptions written by Dallas and for this one he states:

"PFE express reefers. The first three of fifty freight reefers converted to express reefer service with high-speed trucks and passenger train equipment. I’ve been told these cars were not altogether a success because they couldn’t take enough lading to entitle the shipper to a carload rate, which was based on the capacity of a fifty foot car."

Richard Wilkens

Attachments:

• DAG14-029.jpg

That is a magnificent photo, the cars look splendid, thank you for posting it Richard!  This reminds me of a question I had about these cars sometime ago.  Did they mostly stay on the west coast or on SP lines anyway, or did they roam the national network?

Hi, Chris. These cars, like all of PFE’s express reefers, were assigned to the Railway Express pool, as were the express cars of many railroads (I provided a list in the PFE book). They certainly COULD go everywhere, and no doubt did, but the car owners were responsible for any maintenance beyond minor repairs, so they did tend to operate regionally, or get sent home from distant destinations.

Tony Thompson

On Oct 19, 2022, at 4:42 PM, Geodyssey <east@...> wrote:

What evidence is there that the lettering on these three cars is Dulux Gold and not orange?  Not the whole series of cars, just the cars in the photo.  Diagrams and reality don't always match.

In the photo, the lettering looks very orange.  It looks so much like PFE / Daylight orange that, if modeling the car, I'd use Daylight orange vs Dulux Gold aka "tan".

If it is Dulux Gold lettering, what would a photo of car with DL orange lettering look like?

Great photo.

Rob Simpson

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The lettering diagram says Dulux Gold, and I’m sure that's what it is. But decal makers have always struggled to get a “gold” color letter over a dark green car. The Thin Film SP passenger decals look orange on the sheet, but are indeed gold on a Dark Olive Green car.

 

Tony Thompson

On Oct 19, 2022, at 4:42 PM, Geodyssey <east@...> wrote:

What evidence is there that the lettering on these three cars is Dulux Gold and not orange?  Not the whole series of cars, just the cars in the photo.  Diagrams and reality don't always match.

In the photo, the lettering looks very orange.  It looks so much like PFE / Daylight orange that, if modeling the car, I'd use Daylight orange vs Dulux Gold aka "tan".

If it is Dulux Gold lettering, what would a photo of car with DL orange lettering look like?

Great photo.

Rob Simpson

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The lettering diagram says Dulux Gold, and I’m sure that's what it is. But decal makers have always struggled to get a “gold” color letter over a dark green car. The Thin Film SP passenger decals look orange on the sheet, but are indeed gold on a Dark Olive Green car.

 

Tony Thompson

On Oct 20, 2022, at 1:43 AM, Fred Jansz <fjansz56@...> wrote:

For y'all info.
Fred Jansz

Don't know what groups.io did with it, but the original pic looks very different on my screen.
Anyway it was just an attempt to show the reefer's gold lettering was nothing near Daylight orange.
I'm off hiking & fishing...
Fred Jansz

I have a photo of another car in this series (low 900s), and it looks the same. 

Thanks!

Brian Ehni 

• PFE 949.jpg

From: main@RealSTMFC.groups.io [mailto:main@RealSTMFC.groups.io] On Behalf Of Geodyssey
Sent: Friday, October 21, 2022 5:22 PM
To: main@RealSTMFC.groups.io
Subject: Re: [RealSTMFC] Pacific Fruit Express - Express Refrigerator Cars

No, Tony just pointed out that there are documents stating that the lettering was Dulux Gold.  That's like saying someone has clear title just because the deed has been notarized.

The lettering color on PFE 949 looks to be almost exactly the same as the patched PFE / Daylight orange on the refer next to it.  Maybe "color shift" on just the left half of the photo?  Maybe the wood refer was painted Dulux Gold? (no and no).

If the PFE express refer lettering color was the same Dulux Gold which was indeed used on SP passenger cars, where are color photos of SP olive passenger cars with lettering that looks as orange as the express refer lettering seen in two photos?  In every SP olive passenger car color photo I've seen the lettering looks like Dulux Gold, a light yellow-brown, or tan.

Rob Simpson

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Obviously digital scans can render an image poorly, but screen calibration to a standard color palette
is important as well. To say nothing of our individual color acuity or lack of it. Tony pointed out that the
lettering was Dulux Gold applied over dark olive and in bright noon sunlight looked slightly orange. Made
sense to me. :-) Sometime in the 1950's 'Dulux Gold' (a Dupont color) began to look like less like
"Imitation Gold" (AP #22) and shifted to Light Imitation Gold (AP #60 or TCP #89).