It's probably bad form to be asking questions about a photo that appears in my own book, but on page 19 (for those who have it) of Frisco in Color V. 2, there is a picture of one of Frisco's streamlined observation cars parked at Oklahoma City Union Station. If you look, it appears that the stainless steel fluting on the left side is different from the fluting on the right side. This does not seem to be a trick of lighting; it looks genuinely different. I know the MP once painted only one side of a car after a wreck because, as Downing Jenks said, "Nobody looks at both sides of a car at once," and he was right, but in this instance we can see both sides at once. Anybody got any theories on this? GS
Disclaimer: I am not expert and do not know. The first thought that comes to mind is the fluted panel was simply inverted when put on the other side. This might have happened if there was only one piece of tooling to form the bend for the round end and they fed the stock the same way to bend it for each side. After the head-slap moment, they turned one of the pieces upside-down so they met to form the round end. A closer inspection below the window shows the right side appears to have more flutes than the left and the pattern of the fluting surely does look different. The bottom left side appears to have a repeating "broad - narrow - broad - narrow" pattern, while the bottom right side appears to be a "narrow - narrow - broad - narrow - narrow - broad" repeat pattern. It gets curiouser above the windows. The left side pattern looks the same as the bottom, but the right side top has broad bends that appear to have furrows in them as they get further from the center line. GN
I think what you are seeing is a reflection of the station platform roofing on the fluting on the right side. Rich
