I am going to be painting and lettering a number of heavyweight pullmans as used during the transition era. What I need to know is were they lettered for Frisco or were they lettered Pullman. Thank you in advance for any information as it will be greatly appreciated.
Go to http://collections.carli.illinois.edu/cdm4/index_nby_pullman.php?CISOROOT=/nby_pullman and type in the name of the specific car ( I did Rathaus Tower) and a painting diagram will come up. It may or may not be the era you are looking for, but it does show how the Pullman sleepers were lettered on the Frisco as of that date (1955, I think. Darn old timer's disease, I left the site and the date left me. Anyway, the page is very interesting to study. Terry ps. This is the Pullman Digital Library (Newberry Collection) and Dec. 1955 is the correct date. This is the paint diagram for the red and silver heavyweight cars. You may find other paint diagrams in Pullman green, but I am worn out searching for the answer to your question (of which I am also curious).
There were several painting arrangements on Frisco owned or leased Pullmans. --When the cars were still owned by Pullman, 1948 and before, the cars were Pullman Green or two-tone gray with only "Pullman" in the large center letter board and the car name centered below the windows. After the cars were "sold" to the railroads, the Frisco had several different lettering schemes on the red and silver cars: --One car lettered before the Pullman break-up, "McZena" was lettered in the Texas Special "Neon Script" style with "The Texas Special" on the center letter board, "Pullman" in small related lettering at the ends of the letter board and the car name also in the related style centered below the windows. --The other red and silver cars were lettered in Railroad Roman and depending when the car was painted, with either "Pullman" or "Frisco" in the center letter board and car name below windows and either "Pullman" or "Frisco" at the ends of the letter board. --There were some other lettering arrangements on Pullmans converted to coaches. On the Pullman Green cars the Frisco just painted over the "Pullman" with Pullman Green or aluminum paint and sometimes they painted over the car name (And sometimes, not always, assigned a car number). On the red and silver cars, they painted over the "Pullman" with aluminum paint. Tom G. Edit: As far as I could ever tell from examining photos, Pullmans in their original "company" paint schemes (Pullman Green or two-tone gray) never had "Frisco" in their lettering, "Frisco" only appearing on the red and silver cars. PS: In this posting system when you type an "m" it leaves an unwanted space!
