Rob:

Regarding the MTC (Mystic Terminal Company, a B&M subsidiary):  Yes, that's a mid-40s scheme as evidenced by the 1946 reweigh date.  But, 1946 was the year the B&M's USRA cars started receiving AB brakes, Ajax handbrakes, and the Minuteman Service logo as seen here (thanks to Ted C for the photo):



MTC 70110 appears to have received the first two upgrades, but not the third. And I have to be honest, my photo collection of MTC cars is too meager to be able to say that the MTC cars were ever adorned with that logo.  The small number of MTC cars were enumerated in the ORER B&M listings through July, 1932, but were not by July, 1933.  Thus, it's hard to say how many cars still bore these reporting marks by the 1940s.  In-service photos showing the MTC marks are quite rare in my experience.

BTW, despite these upgrades, the B&M's USRA box-cars did not survive for much longer.  Down to 52 cars (of the original 500) by 1950, only four in July of 1953, and gone by 1955.

I recall seeing some chatter about MTC decals, but can't remember the context.  I'd hazard a guess that the Westerfield B&M USRA set includes them.

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Dave Parker
Swall Meadows, CA

thanks for the detailed info Dave!   I didn’t realize MTC70110 was such a rare bird.  Part of what caught my eye was the “at home on Boston & Maine” lettering above the MTC.    Westerfield D3803 is a Boston & Maine decal for USRA cars; i will ask Andrew whether it offers the MTC “at home…” lettering.

If you want most of the gory details on the B&M USRA DS boxcars, see this page:
http://bmfreightcars.com/Box/Box_70000_series.html

(note the new home page in my signature)
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Ken Akerboom
http://bmfreightcars.com/

wow Ken, - that looks like an enormous effort!  Thanks for the link.

Dear Rob, not my area of knowledge at all, but here is an FEC DS car.  Don't know anything about it.  
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Ben Scanlon
Tottenham, England

On Sun, Dec 18, 2022 at 11:06 PM, akerboomk wrote:

If you want most of the gory details on the B&M USRA DS boxcars, see this page:
http://bmfreightcars.com/Box/Box_70000_series.html

Interestingly, the builder's photo of B&M 70115CT in the above link shows the car with no fascia, while the later photos elsewhere in this thread show the cars with fascia.

I also noticed something I've never seen before; in that builder's photo, the rectangular herald has an upward pointing arrow through the B in Boston, and its differing graytone would seem to indicate the arrow in something other than white. Does anyone have a clue as the proper color of the arrow?

Dennis Storzek

On Mon, Dec 19, 2022 at 01:04 PM, Dennis Storzek wrote:

Interestingly, the builder's photo of B&M 70115CT in the above link shows the car with no fascia, while the later photos elsewhere in this thread show the cars with fascia.

Dennis, isn't this generally true with the DS cars?  If I flip through all the photos in RPCyc 16, I don't find this many exceptions to this generalization (no fascia on BPs, yes fascias on in-service pix).  To me the more interesting question is does this mean that the cars were re-roofed when the fascias were added later?  Otherwise, it seems that the panels and seam-caps would come up an inch short with the fascias in place.

I also noticed something I've never seen before; in that builder's photo, the rectangular herald has an upward pointing arrow through the B in Boston, and its differing graytone would seem to indicate the arrow in something other than white. Does anyone have a clue as the proper color of the arrow?

The "arrow" herald was apparently in .use from the late teens into the mid-twenties or so, or at least it persisted that long.  I am not aware of any good clues as to it's color, but Earl Tuson might have an idea (?).
 
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Dave Parker
Swall Meadows, CA

On Mon, Dec 19, 2022 at 03:30 PM, Dave Parker wrote:

Dennis, isn't this generally true with the DS cars?  If I flip through all the photos in RPCyc 16, I don't find this many exceptions to this generalization (no fascia on BPs, yes fascias on in-service pix).  To me the more interesting question is does this mean that the cars were re-roofed when the fascias were added later?  Otherwise, it seems that the panels and seam-caps would come up an inch short with the fascias in place.

Yes, but, since the panels and seam caps all hooked onto what I would call a 'starter strip' that nailed to the fascia, only that strip need be replaced with one made wider by the thickness of the fascia, all the rest could be reused.

Dennis Storzek

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Tim O'Connor
Sterling, Massachusetts