Wouldn’t Stan have fun making that decal?
I triple dog dare ya!!! 
Really nice work John! It’d be hard to find a more interesting prototype.
that car looks very fine!
specially the last pic needs more than one look to decide, that it is not the real thing.
i suppose, these cars were pre-reefer?
do you know, when they were introduced?
Hi Korm,
From Bob Sloan’s book, they were built (or converted?) 1883 as Narrow Gauge cars, by converting boxcars
When built they were for the California Fruit Trade and the bogies were changed at Ogden.
They were classed as Class 2v, and lasted till 1894.
Yours Peter.
Tim,
Did you notice that “billboard” car has no ice hatches.
Some of the early ventilated box cars used for fruit simply had a stock car door hung on them.
thanks Peter!
John,
yes, did notice the lack of ice hatches plus the ‘non-standard’ location of the hand brakeshaft. Some early ‘ice’ reefers the ice blocks were hand loaded internally into bins at either end of the car, with drains located at each end. The ice was loaded above the floor, thus the cold air descended and spread along the car.
Obviously on such cars the ice loaded was meant for short duuratuion trips as reloading ice would have been complicated without unloading the car first.
Very nice conversion John. Really interesting prototype to choose. This one will definitely draw interest whenever it’s ran