Flash,The mix of ice bunkers/mechanical reefers was near 63/64..The ice bunkers would be behind the mechanical reefers in the trains consist..I was told that ice bunkers would be cut out of the train and taken to the ice track for icing..Also the cabin car would not be uncouple from this cut but was taken to the ice track as well.This sped up the icing time.. There is a lot of misinformation when it comes to what type of cars ran when..I hired out on the PRR in '66 as a brakeman..I recall seeing wooden boxes that belong to the WA&G as late as 67 as well as PFE ice bunkers . Freight cars as a rule doesn't get replace or repainted overnight. It seems to me that many modelers seem to be to era conscious when it comes to freight cars.Every now and then I see a 86' auto parts car lettered for the DT&I on the NS as well as other oddities such as NYC center depress heavy duty flat cars.CR use to have E-L hoppers in every day service.I haven't seen these cars since the break up of CR. I still see NW ,Norfork & Western and Southern boxcars and covered hoppers as well on the NS every day.The list goes on concerning fallen flag railroads..
For all the Fallen Flags modellers I noticed on the Kato add on the last page of the Jan Model Railroader that the HO SD-38's and the PA's are listed as licensed products for D&RGW and C&NW, so it looks as though we'll be paying a little extra thanks to Usually Parked paying to park trains on our fallen flag systems
