Only one railroad built "Galloping Goose" rail cars, the 3' gauge Rio Grande Southern. The RGS operated 7 geese. (An 8th goose was built by the RGS for the San Cristobal RR and operated there from 1935 to 1939, when the SCRR was abandoned. This goose was returned to the RGS, but as I understand it, was never operated on the RGS and was used for parts for the other geese.) Goose 1 was a Buick body cab with an open stake bed, with a 4 wheel front truck and a two wheel rear axle. Geese 2 and 6 were two-truck Buick geese with closed and open beds, respectively. Geese 3, 4, 5 & 7 were 3-truckers with Pierce Arrow bodies and box car rears. The first 6 RGS geese were originally painted gloss black (or perhaps very dark green) with white lettering. Goose 1 was scrapped in 1933. Geese 2 - 6 were repainted in aluminum with black lettering in 1935. Goose 7 was painted aluminum when built in 1936. In 1946, the Pierce Arrow bodies on Geese 3, 4, and 5 were replaced with Wayne bus bodies. In 1950, the freight bodies on geese 3, 4,
5, & 7 were converted for passengers with seats and a long open window. The original lettering was fairly simple and small. The lettering with the silver paint scheme became larger and fancier in several iterations usually associated with the various rebuildings. I think this would qualify as "fleet colors" as opposed to just using left over paint, but the term "fleet colors" carries more formality than one would usually associate with the RGS. The book "Silver San Juan" by Ferrell is a good source on the RGS. Gary Q"Duane Ellison" wrote in message news: snipped-for-privacy@posting.google.com...