I am trying to model the Post WWII ATSF. But, I would like to have some box cars with the Buy War Bonds “scheme”. Does anybody know any reference material that I could look for or any pictures they might want to share?
Hello Stephen,
The best resouce on Santa Fe boxcars is John Dobyne’s book, Santa Fe Boxcars, 1869-1953, published by the Santa Fe Ry. Historical & Modeling Society. See atsfrr.net. There is also information on paint schemes, including the “BUY WAR BONDS” slogan, in the Santa Fe Ry. Painting and Lettering Guide For Model Railroaders, by Richard Hendrickson, also published by the Santa Fe society. The boxcar book includes a photo of a boxcar with the slogan, and the painting and lettering guide includes a list (by number) of cars reported to have been stencilled with the slogan, all of class Bx-36. That class, rebuilt as all-steel cars from old Bx-2 wood-bodied cars in 1940-42, was the only class that carried the war bonds slogan.
Good luck with your models,
Andy
Mr. Sperandeo,
Thank you for your response to my inquiry. I know that I would have been spinning my wheels for a very long time looking for the answer. I truly do appreciate the help. Keep on doing the great work on your magazine that I enjoy very much. Again Than You
Stephen
Bowser has an X30 boxcar kit with the war bond slogan. You can Google it & find it for $10.00. They also have cabooses which wouldn’t be much good if you model Santa Fe. Jerry
How late after the end of WW2 would it be reasonable to find any boxcars with this paint scheme still around?
- Gerhard
About ten years ago Athearn put out a special edition double car kit of the ATSF war bond box cars. I got greedy and bought two of them, but subsequently sold one on Ebay a few years ago.
You might check Ebay periodically for them, for while they are Athearn BB kits, KDs and wheelsets and some mild weathering will make you some handsome cars.
How late did they run on the prototype? Well, to be honest I just don’t know. But somehow I suspect they were around thru the late '40s, at least until they were scrapped or hit the paintshop again.
ENJOY !
Stephen
Believe it or not. Railroads that ran the War Bond drives were repainting and patching the slogan cars before Japan surrendered. The PRR had no cars with the slogan going into 1946. They felt the war was over and time to take back the road for themselves. Erasing some bad memories for the veterans returning to work and looking back on lost employees, sons and fathers. The FRA under the USRA took a heavy toll during the war on most roads and most never recovered.
Pete
mobilman44,
Thanks for the heads up on the ebay, I will definitely give it a try. Also, thanks on the time line on the paint scheme, it will come in very handy. Do you regret giving up the one box car?
Pete, Thank you for that very valuable piece of info. I will take into consideration of what you wrote back on my layout. It would make a lot of sense since the need to support the troops was just about over and the business of running a railroad for the companies sake was the priority. Again, thank you.
I know trolley cars with Buy War Bonds painted on them were no longer painted that way after the war ended – but of course trolley cars spend their time on home rails.
A box car in interchange can go a long long time before it gets back to home rails. I wonder when the last Buy War Bonds boxcar returned to its home road (not just the ATSF) and got repainted?
I tried to research when the advertising campaign for “war bonds” ended - since obviously the need to pay for the war didn’t end on VJ Day. I guess the very same bonds were just called by a different name.
Dave Nelson
Yup,
When “war bonds” ended, “savings bonds” kicked in. I used to have monies withheld from my checks for them (if you don’t see it, you don’t spend it) and ended up buying my first house at age 23 in Louisville.
Someone asked earlier if I regretted selling my second set (of 2 kits) of Athearn ATSF war bond box cars. The answer is no, for I just needed to slim down my cars/kits and duplicates were some of the first in line to go - along with build dates beyond my 1959 parameter.
According to Ted Culotta’s Steam Era Freight Cars Reference Manual, 368 cars from the Bx-36 class got the “BUY WAR BONDS” slogan (which, incidentally, was added to the cars by simply painting right over the existing paint). The slogan was still seen into the '50s, even though the railroad issued an order that it be painted-over almost immediately following the cessation of hostilities.
Wayne
Wayne
I am not familiar with the Bx-36 cars. What roads carried them on the roster?
Without knowing the history of the car there could have been many still holding the slogan until the road finally got to painting them over. 368 out of thousands of cars with slogans is minuscule. It could be the cars that retained the slogan were leased to another road in captive routes, been sitting in deadlines waiting for repair until material was had for repair, or simply off line for that long a period. It could also be that the road did not have the resources available until the cars were repainted or scrapped. Most roads were found in such a state of disrepair that paint was low on the priority list.
Ted has done a fabulous job in detailing the history and time lines that my limited knowledge can not question his work. The post war era was a fantastic period in history and I am sure things will be found that surprise historians for generations to come. The mistakes made by the FRA in control of the railroads, the rules by the ICC that set freight rates and also eliminating the billboard cars that added some color to a bland looking box car. This stuff fascinates me.
One thing that caught my fascination was the painting of a large X on cars carrying munitions mandated by the FRA against the protests by the unions and the rail roads until the saboteurs were caught. Everyone but the government knew that those large Xs were just targets for someone to do harm.
Pete
Sorry, Pete: the Bx-36 cars are the Santa Fe cars mentioned in the O.P.'s original post and referred to by Andy in his reply.
You’re correct about that being a small number of cars, and it’s certainly not surprising that examples with the slogan were still to be found well into the '50s.
Wayne