I've never heard it suggested that the arrow was anything but white, but maybe I always just ASSUMED.  I see your point about it not looking the same color.
Note some representations I've seen the "tail" of the arrow is painted to give an impression of feathers.
There are a few pictures of cars with the arrow herald (very few...)
I don't have a builder's photo of the 90000 series gons to see if it was used on those USRA cars (as delivered, we know it was eventually added later) as well

IIRC, the "Rectangular" herald started on their literature (Timetables, etc.) before it got migrated to cars (and engines, both steam and the earliest diesels)
The "Arrow" version was done early on, later the arrow was dropped. - look at the builder's photos of the

• 71000 series boxcars
• 73000 series boxcars
• 7100 series hoppers
• 8000 series hoppers

The 71000 and 8000 series cars also show the (short lived) "Minute Man Service" slogan (the font for which was also used on a couple steam engines, etc.)
There was also a variant of the rectangular herald with a map of New England (only used on the 13100 reefers, from what I can tell)
In 1943-44 the rectangular herald was dropped in favor of the "minuteman" herald for cars & diesels (Steam retained the rectangular herald until the end)
--
Ken Akerboom
http://bmfreightcars.com/

On Mon, Dec 19, 2022 at 10:52 PM, akerboomk wrote:

I've never heard it suggested that the arrow was anything but white, but maybe I always just ASSUMED.  I see your point about it not looking the same color.
Note some representations I've seen the "tail" of the arrow is painted to give an impression of feathers.
There are a few pictures of cars with the arrow herald (very few...)

Thanks for responding, Ken. As with most details of this type, the answer may never be known. It sounds like the use of the arrow was neither widespread nor lasted long enough to be well documented; certainly not by a color photo. Best we can hope for is a color notation on a stenciling drawing, or perhaps some mention in a newspaper account, lacking that, anything would just be a guess. If I were to guess, I would guess the arrow is either yellow or imitation gold; either would turn light gray in a B&W photo whether the film used was orthochromatic or panchromatic. Since the lettering is otherwise readable and Accurail makes a kit for the car, I'm going to put it in the 'hopper' for a future release. Hopefully more info will surface before they get made.

Dennis Storzek

Dennis:

The late Tim Gilbert was of the opinion that the arrow was red; I'm not really sure why.  Al Westerfield's decal set for the USRA car includes a red arrow that can be overlain on the rectangular herald.

Tim did not, it seems, have access to the USRA DS builders photo when he wrote about this herald in May-June, 2001 (B&M Modeler's Notes #72).  He did show and discuss the herald on an old WUF shorty (a Bob's photo that I don't think I have seen).  He believed that herald was on a metal placard attached to the siding.  Earl Tuson has a photo of WUF car 62236 that does not support the placard idea, but does show the arrow herald with a noticeably darker (black?) background not seen on the USRA car.  There, the arrow looks about the same shade of gray as the siding, so perhaps it was at least some shade of red (?).  [But, if you assumed orthochromatic film, you might come up with different interpretation on this one].

Nothing definitive that I have been able to track down, but that's the story (as I know it) from B&M land.
--
Dave Parker
Swall Meadows, CA

On Tue, Dec 20, 2022 at 04:56 PM, Dave Parker wrote:

[But, if you assumed orthochromatic film, you might come up with different interpretation on this one].

That's a problem, there is not enough other info to make a judgement about the type of film. If the arrow appeared black, we could reasonably assume that it was red, photographed with orthochromatic film. But it's not, and pan film would turn any number of colors gray, including red. Is there any other reason to suspect red?

Dennis Storzek