John-
My point is that, while North American railroads had creative individuals working for them in far-flung locations it was not total anarchy…..most lines had management systems in place that required people to follow established protocols in the course of their daily work. Interesting deviations did happen the vast majority of work was done “by the book” down to very small details. There were areas of local variation …..routing of lines on steam locomotives, interpretation of lettering during the sign-painter era, etc… but standardization was normal. There are drawings for the smallest details of equipment and even down to tools used in the conduct of business.
Sometimes we note the unusual (how many one-offs got made in plastic because they were of enough note to make it into a Cyclopedia or other publication?) and the ordinary goes un-noticed as common background noise.
It is like the notion that everyone coming through Immigration got their names Americanized…..while that did happen, it was not “normal”….plenty of people are “stuck” with their original European names…because the immigration people worked off of the Ship Registries….and especially the German Lines had bureaucracies in place to make the paperwork very accurate. I know this based on my own last name!!
On the other hand, one of the problems I had when I worked at Kato was trying to convince the Japanese that two units were not painted exactly the same….something that would not be possible in Japan as they are suicidal about following rules there.
Charlie Vlk
Charlie
Being "a long way from Chicago", could have some effect. In 1976, the Herrin Junction to Metropolis local crew decided that no "Bi-Centential" equipment would ever come down that far. So they decided to paint their waycar red, white and blue. The Metropolis Bridge paint gang painted it with paint bought by the crew. When he found out about it, the Ass't Superintendent blew a gasket. By then Bill Wylde's photograph had found its way to Chicago and brass up there loved it!