During WW II many boxcars and hoppers had script "Buy War Bonds" or "Buy More War Bonds" on each side. Were those slogans painted on cars built after the war? If not, were they left as is, painted over immediately or painted over when the car came in for maintenance? Thank you, John
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I found a very interesting article about how most railroads and many other businesses voluntarily painted their livery for the war effort, but nothing about how they disappeared after the war. My total guess would be that they were repainted over time. You still found NRA (National Recovery Administration) posters everywhere after the Depression was over, and recruitment and "Uncle Sam Wants You" after WWII, right?
I don't think on VJ day, all the paint crews were standing by to repaint the fleet!!!
John,
I've always wanted to know the answer to that question. My layout is set in 1949 and I run a few cars with Buy War Bonds. I've used Rich's logic to justify them but would really like to know for sure.
Series A-B-C and D savings bonds were sold in the 1930s by the government. Series E "defense bonds" began being sold in early 1941. Once the US joined the war they became "war bonds". The last 'war bond' drive ended in December 1945. After that, Series E went back to being 'regular' savings bonds.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Series_E_bond
My (semi)educated guess would be that once the war was over, people wanted to get back to 'normal' as soon as possible. In that period, I think railroads probably were pretty quick to repaint the red-white-blue "Buy Bonds" boxcars back to boxcar red, probably with a slogan added encouraging people to ride their new streamlined postwar trains.