Ron Morse (Hudsonut1) sent me this photo he got from ebay. Pretty interesting, eh? I know some of the hot passenger trains ran on different roads--Like the New York Central and Santa Fe, coast to coast, but freights? Anyone have an explanation?
If it was a Reefer, I'd say it might be a run-thru for veggies like the PFE's, but since it's just a standard 40' Box .... ? Dunno, Hank
My guess would be the NYC "bought" it from the Santa Fe because of a shortage of 40' boxes & couldn't spare the time to put it in the paint shop. I remember a number of years ago there was a shortage of 86'hycubes for the Ford Saline plant so the Ann Arbor spotted a bright orange DT&I hycube with GBW reporting marks into the plant.
Fred, that's an interesting, and certainly plausible, theory. Looking at the photo again, the "NYC" looks a little brighter (newer?) than the rest of the lettering and logo.