What color would the ex-Pullman 10/1/2 heavyweight sleepers have been in the early to mid '50's as in service on the Pelican and Tennessean?Were they lettered for Southern or Pullman, and what color/style was the lettering?

-- Marty Flick (Golddenim@insight.rr.com), June 13, 2002

Answers

starting around 1949 into the early fifties, some of the heavyweight Pullman's may have been silver with shadowlining to imitate the fluting on the stainless steel cars. That style did not last too long. With the breakup of Pullman, many of the heavyweights were distributed to the owning roads in 1948, but most were leased back to Pullman for operation. For the cars Southern owned, the standard paint would be Pullman green with "Southern" in gothic lettering (not Roman) in the center of the letteroard with "Pullman" in small lettering on the far ends of the car sides. But Pullman could have just as easily assigned a heavyweight Pullman belonging to another railroad to the car lines on The Tennessean and The Peilican.

-- Jack Wyatt (cjwyatt@bellsouth.net), June 13, 2002.