Nostalgia & History > WAG Wednesday: Bill's Boxcars (vol 1)

In 1975-76 I was completely absorbed with the modeling end of this hobby. I developed a specific interest in custom painting cars and engines. Fellow Manhattan resident & hobbyist Dan Codespoti (‘SouthRailDan’) taught me the finer points of paint & decal work. Very soon I discovered I needed pictures of cars & engines to use as templates for this work. I started out shooting those needed ‘template’ photos with my trusty X-15 Instamatic camera, thinking I was real hot stuff. Of course, I quickly discovered there was something much better called 35mm photography. Change was inevitable, but that change turned out to be a total conversion from modeling into full blown railfan photography. With the passing of 4+ decades I made the ascension from shooting 126 Instamatic color negatives into shooting 35mm Kodachrome slides and onward into a fully digital world with my current Nikon D7100.

But even now I will still shoot the occasional freight car, and any other interesting piece of rolling stock. It was not at all surprising to discover my fellow full-time railfan photographers would also shoot freight cars, just as if they were into paint & decal work. This includes both of our our beloved WAGs, Misters William A. Gibson Sr (Bill) & Jr (Art). In the 8 years I spent scanning & archiving the “Team Gibson Collection” I ended up with enough freight car scans to post up to 3 images every week for months. For 2-3 years I’ve been toying with the idea of starting a sub-series within the weekly WAG series. My working sub-title is “Bill’s Boxcars”, but this new series would include images by his son Art, who was also prolific in shooting rolling stock. Of late, I’m really glad to see TO member “Fortyfooter” posting freight car images from the collection of mutual friend Gary Rich, who once upon a time lived in Kansas and worked for my same Santa Fe Middle Division. I feel like I just got a green light to start posting Gibson Collection freight car images.

Half a century ago 40 & 50 foot boxcars absolutely ruled the railroad world. Half a century ago virtually every railroad in North America took great pains to dispatch entire fleets of well-maintained, clean boxcars that carried their corporate identities and reputations. Half a century ago Bill & Art Gibson were both firmly in the habit of shooting nicely sunlit Kodachrome slides of freight cars. For you custom painting modelers & fans of ancient freight cars this new series will be right up your spur track, because half a century ago we lived in a world without criminal taggers.

Here we go with volume #1 of Bill’s Boxcars:

1. D&RGW 60803 in Council Bluffs, IA on September 15, 1962.

2. SP&S 13367 in Topeka, KS on December 25, 1960.

3. TP&W 1259 in Topeka, KS on September 9, 1964.
Three photos by William A. Gibson (WAG) Sr.

Thanks for looking back!
Lance Garrels (santafe199)
Art Gibson (wag216)



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 12/04/22 22:39 by santafe199.

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This is going to be fun!!!!

Thanks, but only three?  Come on Lance, us freight car junkies need more.
John ( who has a tank car Jones)

SeaboardMan Wrote: > ... but only three?
Well now (snickering) I just can't go blasting all hunnert-eleventy-seven bazillion images in ONE thread, can I??!!

 > ... us freight car junkies need more ...
Sorry my friend, you'll just have to take 2 aspirin and call in next Wednesday...

;^)

santafe199 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> SeaboardMan Wrote: > ... but only three?
> Well now (snickering) I just can't go blasting
> all hunnert-eleventy-seven bazillion images in ONE
> thread, can I??!!
>
>  > ... us freight car junkies need more ...
> Sorry my friend, you'll just have to take 2
> aspirin and call in next Wednesday...
>
> ;^)

I'll be looking forward to Wednesdays!  I've always been a big freight car (and passenger car) fan.  And, by the way, back in my model railroadings days, custom painting and decaling was my favorite part of the hobby.

John

That is one hell of a start Lance!  Can't wait for future volumes.

Lovely photo of that D&RGW box car - the others are nice too!

valmont Wrote:
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> This is going to be fun!!!!

I second that! This is going to bring back great memories.

Larry

 

Korigaoka1811 Wrote: > ...  freight car  >> (and passenger car) << fan ...

I kinda-sorta anticipated this situation, but wasn't brave enough to say anything about it. So... '"Yes Virginia", I'm sure Art & I can adapt the title Bill's Boxcars to include passenger cars and anything else in the rolling stock category! (Of course, it goes without saying that this adaptation will add to the total number of WAG Wednesday threads you'll have to suffer through... ;^)

Lance/199



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/12/19 09:45 by santafe199.

When did you steal my O gauge boxcars?????  These are fantastic, more please!

Rubs eyes.... Those are three spankin' clean box cars! I'm sure the FA-1s behind the car in #1 were ignored. Thanks for sharing these.

King_Coal Wrote: > ...  I'm sure the FA-1s behind the car in #1 were ignored ...
Now WHAT in the world would make you think this way? (chuckling... ;^)

(now snickering loudly) After my 8-year endeavor in scanning & archiving the Gibson Collection I have learned 2 simple rules concerning Bill Gibson's' railfan photography:
(Rule #1)  Never, NEVER, NEVER underestimate the finer points of Bill Gibson's railfanning methods & results!
(Rule #2)  If, for some strange reason, you should have cause to doubt Bill Gibson, see rule #1...

It took almost an hour, but I now have a Photoshopped image that should put a big smile on your beam from stem to stern! But I still have to write up a paragraph to go with it. September 15, 1962 was a very productive day for Mr WAG Sr!!! Here are 5 links to previous threads containing images from that fateful day:

https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?11,3492802,3492802#msg-3492802  (08-13-2014)
https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?11,4408179,4408179#msg-4408179  (11-01-2017)
https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?11,4687839,4687839#msg-4687839  (12-12-2018)
https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?11,4797164,4797164#4797164  (05-22-2019) 
https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?11,4805804,4805804#msg-4805804  (one week ago)

These gems should tide you over until I can post "WAG running extra #62". Don't touch that dial...

Lance