At first glance it looks like the Marks are BB 1121, meaning it’s owned by the Buckingham Branch. but research shows that BB 1211 is a Boxcar. my theory is that this is BR 1121, this is helped along by the fact there were multiple BR Marked Gondola with almost exact decals and color.
Why is the stenciling like that? Is it the cars heritage?
I saw an EEC car once that wasn’t even stenciled. The reporting mark and number were done freehand with a brush! And I don’t mean graffiti.
Bruce
I’ve seen more than a few mill gons that were re-stenciled with the correct reporting marks and numbers with spray paint after the original was blistered off by the heat from steel mill furnaces.
“Free-hand” stencilling isn’t that uncommon. Usually what I see is a partial touch up of the reporting marks and number due to the original being covered up by “art.” A few even look like the “artist” may have replaced what he covered up because the style looks the same as other lettering the “artist” used.
Sometimes it’s due to repair work that has been done on the car. I think the best that I’ve seen was on a CNW covered hopper that had some repair work done… Whoever did it went to the trouble of imitating the lettering font used when repainting the “CNW” reporting marks on the car. From a distance it looked like it was stencilled, up close you could see it had been done free-hand.
Jeff
yeah I saw a Wiregrass Central Boxcar that was “freehanded” yesterday. But as for the problem witht his car is it looks like the restenciled it with out patching it first. [^o)]
It is, in fact, BR 1121. BR was the Bradford Industrial Railroad, but the reporting marks are now assigned to the Buffalo & Pittsburgh Railroad.
The car was built as CBNS 1121 (Cape Breton & Central Nova Scotia Railway).
The sides of many gons are so lumpy I’m not surprised they are hard to stencil.
I guess the stenciling doesn’t have to be good, it just has to be there.
Some very bad stenciling has been done to some random High-Cube Box Cars in the GTW 406 000-406 999 that were originally had CN reporting marks. The GTW stencils were too narrow and the paint sprayed was too thin of a coat, so they are hard to read from a distance. Many cars had GTW reporting marks that matched the Original CN font, but somebody got to a batch of them with very bad stencils and paint.
To find some photos will take a day or two.
Andrew