Sorry about this. The thread was lost on my replying due to whatever reason. I mangaged to get my response to Chris's question about the 50' Soo RBL's back through Charlie (E8) and am posting this below. Message; Ok, this has thrown a spanner in the works I have scant information on the preceding series built by Pullman-Standard in 1961 (177500-177548, even no. only), and the successor series built by GATX in late 1963-early 1964 (177698-177856, even no. only). The above photo falls in the middle of these! The b image I have of 177510 has an eight foot single sliding door and SOO LINE in the earlier-style red serif block lettering set close to the door on a very light grey, not white, body with red door. The ends appear white and the photo is dated 4/78. Judging by the lettering and weathering I would say this is the original paint scheme for the first 'new image' white/red/black. The photo above shows the newer-style lettering, though it could be a later repaint. So, the above could be either a P-S or GATX built car, though I would lean more towards P-S. And they were about as common as they got in the early 60's. Gary. ps. The odd thing about this series is the numbering of the RBL cars amongst the XM/XML series. They would, BTW, be even numbers only. ------------------ Gary A. Rose The Unofficial TC&W page TrainBoard Moderator and Member No.377 N to the Nth degree! [This message has been edited by Gats (edited 16 January 2001).]
You're welcome, Chris. It helps us both. I now have some more information to file away in the trivia folder of the ol' grey matter! Gary. ------------------ Gary A. Rose The Unofficial TC&W page TrainBoard Moderator and Member No.377 N to the Nth degree!
