Painting a Freight Car

Over the years I’ve read through the label on a can of paint and one is always admonished to apply the coating in mild temperatures, generally above 60 degrees F or so. Apparently the Chicago and North Western folks have different ideas on the subject, or perhaps a new and improved paint for their freight cars.

It’s December of 1942, and Jack Delano spied this fellow applying a fresh coat of paint to a car on the RIP track in the Proviso yard near Chicago. And that has to be the longest extension I’ve ever seen for a paint sprayer! I wonder how many days it will take before one can touch that car without sticking to it.

Painting a Freight Car