No, the lettering you saw in KC was not the original. When the MTZ was
purchased for display in 1962, it still had the original etched, paint-filled
name plates - but they 'disappeared' while the train was being prepared for
delivery (as did the cast bronze portrait of Mark Twain from the tail plate and
the obs. lounge chairs). After the Old Threshers people complained, new
nameplates were made, but they were just flat stainless with black lettering
masked and sprayed. (When they were brand new, you could still see masking tape
crinkles at the edges of some letters). However, the spelling "Huckleberry" is
correct in the novels, and one would expect Ralph Budd to have insisted on
accuracy.
Marshall Thayer (who was crawling around under the MTZ in 1962, removing the
pivot pins so each car could be separately moved on house dollies to the
Threshers Grounds)
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