I know it's been decades since we've seen one, but remember those beautiful (yet somewhat gaudy) "State of Maine Products" billboard boxcars painted red, white and blue? The sides of those cars were divided into thirds, horizontally: the top third painted red, the middle third white, and the bottom third sported a deep blue.
The big home road, Bangor & Aroostook, owned the bulk of this fleet. But somehow the New York, New Haven and Hartford also owned a few, identically painted, "State of Maine Products" boxcars as well. What motivated the NH, a railroad that didn't even serve the state of Maine, to participate in this freight car decoration scheme?
I thought the colors were the other way around--but a photo should put that to rest.
New Haven's "State of Maine" cars were insulated, heated box cars used for the transportation of potatoes. There probably was enough of that business between Maine and New York City to justify assigning cars to NH. Without knowing about the actual financing of these cars, it would be hard to say why they got what they did.
An intermediate carrier would have needed to be used between BAR and NH...they don't seem to have had any of these "State of Maine" cars.
Carl
Railroader Emeritus (practiced railroading for 46 years--and in 2010 I finally got it right!)
CAACSCOCOM--I don't want to behave improperly, so I just won't behave at all. (SM)
It was a joint order by both the New Haven and BAR that resulted in this cars and all the fleet being painted Red-White-Blue and the New Haven cars having NH reporting marks on this scheme. In the white, the was a NH reporting mark, "NEW HAVEN", and a script herald, so they weren't painted indentically to the BAR cars...
The reason for the purchase was the New Haven was a big-time transporter of potatoes from the BAR... These were indeed insulated, heated boxcars -- a charcoal heater sits underneath. The New Haven even had a special potatoe train that ran daily when in season I believe... It was a big business and they apparently wanted to own some of these cars and ordered jointly with the BAR... They came on around 1953.
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Larry Resident Microferroequinologist (at least at my house) Everyone goes home; Safety begins with you My Opinion. Standard Disclaimers Apply. No Expiration Date Come ride the rails with me! There's one thing about humility - the moment you think you've got it, you've lost it...
tree68 wrote: From the site http://www.atlastrainman.com
It was in the 1950's that many of these bilboard style cars were produced for model railroading in "O gauges,and HO" Many model sides were printed on cardboard, and were quite colorful. Certainly,they made REAL train watching and model railroading quite interesting, but were apparently killed because of the up-keep factor. In this day and time the graffiti artists would have them quickly trashed out, What a shame, as they would really be interesting!
Actually....they looked a little more like this.... It was a plug door car...
http://www.atlasrr.com/Images/NFreightCars/n40plugdoor/42806pl/33304.jpg
CShaveRR wrote: An intermediate carrier would have needed to be used between BAR and NH...they don't seem to have had any of these "State of Maine" cars.
There were actually two intermediate carriers involved. The Maine Central would receive the cars at Northern Maine Junction (Bangor) and forward them to the Boston & Maine at Portland, ME. From Portland the cars would be moved to Worcester, MA, for interchange with the New Haven.
Bob-Fryml The sides of those cars were divided into thirds, horizontally: the top third painted red, the middle third white, and the bottom third sported a deep blue.
The sides of those cars were divided into thirds, horizontally: the top third painted red, the middle third white, and the bottom third sported a deep blue.
Thanks, everybody. I gladly stand corrected as to how the colors were layed out: the stripes were blue over white over red! The photos you enclosed are entirely correct.
As to someone's comment about the graffiti artists having a field day with these cars, imagine what would happen if one of these beauties made its way into Los Angeles. Between two of the area's most notorious and constantly feuding street gangs - The Bloods, whose colors are red, and The Crips, whose colors are blue - my guess is that none of those "STATE OF MAINE / PRODUCTS" boxcars would get ever get out of "La-la land" without being torched.
http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=124884
It may show up in your neck of the woods.
Randy Stahl wrote: http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=124884 It may show up in your neck of the woods.
Randy,
MMA 1 did roll down the CN rails through Vicksburg, Michigan towards Battle Creek, MI a few months ago.
There usually are a few MMA Boxcars in manifest freight trains on the CN.
A photo of MMA 1 is on the Montreal, Maine & Atlantic Website. It was painted in the State of Maine scheme as a one year commemoration of the newly formed rail tranportation company.
Andrew
Watch my videos on-line at https://www.youtube.com/user/AndrewNeilFalconer
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