Silver painted Man O War cars

greenspun.com : LUSENET : Central of Georgia Railway Historical Soc : One Thread

I have seen a number of photos of the Man O War which showed several lightweight headend cars painted silver, most with shadow lines, one without, as well as one photo that shows what appears to be a modernized coach, also painted silver... can anyone tell me anything about these non-Budd Man of War cars? Many Thanks...

-- Jerry M. LaBoda (jmlaboda@yahoo.com), August 25, 2001

Answers

We researched this issue when we were preparing the artwork for the new Microscale CofGa passenger car decal. The Central's record keeping regarding which cars were painted which colors seems to be rather sketchy. But we do know that the following cars were indeed painted aluminum for use on the Man o' War.

458 - baggage/express (ACF 1945) no red "hat band", no shadowlining 493 and 494 - baggage/mail (Bethlehem Steel 1937) had red "hat band" but no shadowlining 528 - partition coach (Pullman 1924) no red "hat band" but did have painted shadowlining (Note that this car was later painted in brown/orange for service on IC trains).

I don't believe that any of these cars ever carried the round Man o' War train sign. Car 458 carried Baggage and probably Railway Express lettering. Cars 493 and 494 carried Baggage and U.S. Mail Railway Post Office lettering. (All of this lettering is included in the new decal sets.)

-- Allen Tuten (allen@cofg.org), August 25, 2001.


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