Bangor & Aroostook Sign Question

[NellsChoo]

Hi all

Does anyone know exactly what cars these Bangor & Aroostook signs were attached to? I saw one source that said they were on potato cars... but I have never seen any of those in a paint scheme it would go with. Green and white... more of a Maine Central scheme...

Can anyone give some details? Anyone ever actually SEEN one of these attached to a car? Is it possible it was actually used in some sort of piggyback service?

JD

[Backshophoss]

They are attached to cars used in a dedicated service between 2 points,1 example is boxcars used in animal hide service as the boxcars over
time will tend smell like the dead animal hides transported in the cars,boxcars used by the big 3 auto makers to haul auto parts are rigged to handle
certain kind of parts in some form of "pallet" like sheet metal body parts,or raw castings from a foundry to a machine shop for finishing.
Cars with "return empty to" placards cannot be redirected to other loads on the receiving RR,must be sent back to the RR that sent the cars
A "what if" example: Potatos for Frito Lay in Denver Co from Vastine Co on the St Luis Central, car loaded at Vastine,given to the SLRG at
Sugar Jct,interchanged to the UP to go north on the Joint line to Denver,and delivered to Frito-Lay,Empty car returns to Vastine by running the
route in reverse,UP south on the Joint line interchanged back to the SLRG,and handed back to SLC at Sugar Jct to be reloaded again at Vastine Co.

[NellsChoo]

Sooooooo, the car it was on was to be used ONLY for one company's product, or one commodity?

[Backshophoss]

Yes.

[NellsChoo]

THANKS! So trying to pin down what service the attached car was in is almost impossible. BUT, note the GREEN color. To my knowledge, the BAR never had cars that matched that paint scheme. We all know the R/W/B 'tater cars.

Why green I wonder...

[arthur d.]

So that it would stand out against whatever paint scheme the car was wearing.
Consider too that it may have been affixed INSIDE the car.

[MACTRAXX]

NC/JD:

I took a look at the picture of the BAR sign and noticed that it was painted metal with mounting
holes - note that this was made by the READY MADE SIGN COMPANY of New York...

Is there anything written on the back of this sign? If there is anything significant can you post a
picture of the back? Sometimes sign manufacturers would place dates or other notations on the
back which is something I remember being familiar with older porcelain enamel and metal signs.

Just do a Google search on the sign maker and see what you come up with - I think that 1930s
or 1940s could be the time period that this sign dates from...

MACTRAXX

[Tom M]

I can't help with this particular sign, but I do recall that automotive dashboards, armrests, and such were formerly produced in New Hampshire. The B&M boxcars that brought the products to Detroit carried the stenciled message "When empty return to B&M RR Dover, NH." Nothing fancy. I also remember seeing cars stenciled "Pulpwood loading only. When empty return to B&M RR Woodsville, NH." Some cars were also marked "For Paper Loading Only." As mentioned above, the interiors of the cars were modified for efficient loading of specific products. It may be that the color of the BAR sign was insignificant. Nevertheless, a curious artifact!