I made these images in 1963, or shortly after, in the East Los Angeles UPRR yard. The different heralds, on the sides of new cars of the same build lot based on the car numbers shown in the images, caught my eye.

I wondered then, as now, what the story was. Since my “expertise” on UPRR freight cars is sadly deficient in the period after 1930, I never did find out. I am still not motivated to flush out the story, but, I am curious about what happened. Perhaps one of the fine freight car historians “out there” will take pity on me and relate to me the answer to my fifty year old mystery.

Click on either image to enlarge.