Cotton Belt Heavyweights in Daylight

[mcjaco]

That pic of the van reminds me of the guy in Franklin Canyon that had a Chrysler Minivan painted in Daylight colors.  I have a picture somewhere at home....I thought I had it uploaded at Trainboard at some point...

This is pretty funny though too:

[C855B]

And there you have it. Qualifies as a "heavyweight", for sure. Clearly, this was the car Clark Griswold ordered, but ended-up with the Cotton Belt version instead.

 

[JoeD]

Ear Mark this as classic Railwire thread drift.  LOL

[mcjaco]

Ear Mark this as classic Railwire thread drift.  LOL

I think you're missing a prime opportunity for a new product!   

[JMaurer1]

Since we've already gone here, there used to be two Dodge Caravans in the SF Bay area (I think owned by the same person)...one was painted SP daylight and one was painted Black Widow. Of course, now that I need the pictures I can't find them. Here's a different Daylight van that I did find:

[JMaurer1]

OK, found a picture, but I have some I took that is just the two vans, but better than nothing:

[jagged ben]

Oh my god.   

[johnb]

I wish that I had a picture....when the Dodge Magnum came out in 2003, there was a body shop just off of the old Pacific Electric/Southern Pacific line that ran through Cerritos, CA (Santa Ana to Watts Junction) and they painted a Magnum like a Milwaukee Road loco....down to the logo on the front doors....

[C855B]

Ear Mark this as classic Railwire thread drift.  LOL

Heh heh.    Don't blame me. Or rather, I'm not feeling guilty about it at all. Truth be told, from what I knew of SP and subsidiaries, I had a hunch this topic was going to run-out very quickly from lack of material. There are three biggies - first, Cotton Belt was one of the earliest Class I's to axe passenger service. It was down to just the Morning Star around 1952 or so, and it was gone in '59. This is part of the second problem, color photography in the '50s was primarily in the professional and studio domains. I had an acquaintance who shot Kodachrome (ASA 1) in that era, and about all he could manage was Southwest desert images taken at noon. Santa Fe warbonnet red really popped in his slides, but other than that it was difficult, and expensive, to shoot rail action in color.

And then there's the third problem - SSW's operating region was not and still is not exactly known for its railfan population. "Whatcha matta' wid you, boy? Don't'cha like girls? Or football, for chrissakes?" Like a lot of Deep South rail images, I would hazard a bet that what photography there is was from guys passing through, or the handful of known images from the St. Louis area.

Speaking of "passing through", the Barriger collection has early Cotton Belt images, but all in B&W, and none in the era you were looking for. It's a difficult subject.