title says it all. Why did these boxcars and these gondolas recieve what appears to be UP style reporting marks? were we under their influence that much since the merger was that year? Since im modelling a modern SP should i change the reporting marks to SP Roman style? http://www.railgoat.railfan.net/spcars/byclass/box/b100-50.htm http://www.railgoat.railfan.net/spcars/byclass/gon/g100-37.htm Furthermore why did they not recieve speed lettering when everything else was? My theory is that since they were delivered that close to the merger we wanted to use OUR stlye of letters rather than the Grande's (speed) style to let OUR name appear in OUR style for the longest time possible... or maybe it was our farewell thing to the railroda world... what do you guys think? Does anyone know the answers to these questions?
Don't know the definintive answer, but cost was the likely reason. Look at any freight equipment bought within the past 15 years or so; the trend is to simplify. With the exception of RR logos, distinctive reporting mark or lettering styles have pretty much gone out the door, replaced by generic, cookie-cutter fonts. Which would suit the builder just fine, since the lettering that goes on ABC railroad's cars is the same as what they would apply to railroad XYZ's cars. No need to plot-cut different styles of lettering; just have one basic style in inventory. Of course, since SP was buying the cars they probably could have specified more traditional-style Roman reporting marks and data, but I'd be willing to wager that would have cost extra.
