On page 297 of Bud Linroth’s Quincy Branch book, is a
photo that shows a line of mostly Burlington box cars at Bushnell in 1910. The
third one from the camera looks very black compared to all the others present. The
photo can be viewed at http://collections.carli.illinois.edu/cdm/singleitem/collection/wiu_digimgc/id/1447/rec/1
and enlarged so that you can zoom in. The car appears to be the same dark colour
as the hats worn by some of the men walking across the tracks (and the
umbrella).
Back in October, following the general consensus that the only black Burlington
box cars were bogus models, I referred to a photo from Dave Lotz’
collection on page 21 of Zephyr 65 showing box car #96777 (XM-9 built by Pullman
in 1905) that appeared to be distinctly black. No date was given for the photo
but the number of the adjacent stock car indicated that it was post-1909, at
least 4 years after the box car was built.
The road number of the Bushnell car isn’t legible (appears to be five
digits) but I note two lines of writing below the road initials / number and
one line of writing below the herald. Was this just standard data or did it indicate
a special assignment or function? Does anyone have an early photo of a XM-9 (95000-95999,
96000-96899, 97000-97016) for comparison?
Rupert Gamlen
Auckland NZ