Morning Sun 1741 1950s Freight Car Color Guide Vol. 1

by James Kinkaid and Ken Donnelly

The 1950s are arguably the classic era for freight cars, pre-dating the mergers that would erase many venerable roads and leave us with new names such as Penn Central, Seaboard Coast Lines, and Erie-Lackawanna. In the 1950s, "boxcar red" was everywhere, but colorful new paint schemes were arriving and turning heads. It was the final decade of friction bearings and roofwalks, and the ultimate years of stock cars, ice-bunker refrigerator cars, and even the XM 40' boxcar!