Billboard Cars


Bruette

Bruette

Well-Known Member
I love the colorful models of billboard cars. My understanding is they were banned in the real railroad world.

My questions are; is it true they were banned, why and when?

Here is a picture of one of my favorites
Lionel-Hersheys-Kisses-Christmas-Boxcar-6-15096.jpg


Feel free to post pictures of your favorite. I will enjoy seeing them.
 
They were in fact banned.
I seem to remember the ban being based on the advertising, and violating antitrust and commerce laws. I'm not sure what the difference was thought to be between billboard freight cars and transfer trucks we see in the roads every day with similar advertising.
 
It wasn't really a ban, and it was limited. The problem was that leasing companies like GATX would put advertising for certain good customers on their car sides -- let's say Pabst Brewing. The problem was that a car with the Pabst ad on its sides could go to a different customer, including maybe Schlitz. Schlitz wouldn't like the idea that its money was going to GATX and part of it paid for the Pabst ad for its competitor. So the smaller shippers brought a case with the ICC. The result was that the ICC ruled that a shipper could refuse a car that had the ad for a competitor on it.

This really didn't affect that many cars. The US First Amendment, of course, says nobody can say how big the lettering can be on your boxcar. If a brewery or whatever owned its own cars, it could paint them as it pleased, it was just GATX, etc cars with ads for certain shippers that were affected.
 
G'day Louis and all....Ban or not....It's a shame ...just adds to the interest of train buffs but commerce obviously sees it different. At least on Model Rail , billboard cars can still exist in all sorts of ways...Cheers Rod...
 
jwb said:
It wasn't really a ban, and it was limited. The problem was that leasing companies like GATX would put advertising for certain good customers on their car sides -- let's say Pabst Brewing. The problem was that a car with the Pabst ad on its sides could go to a different customer, including maybe Schlitz. Schlitz wouldn't like the idea that its money was going to GATX and part of it paid for the Pabst ad for its competitor. So the smaller shippers brought a case with the ICC. The result was that the ICC ruled that a shipper could refuse a car that had the ad for a competitor on it.
Click to expand...

Basically correct, but it had more to do with *RAILROADS* selling third-part advertising. LOTS of leased cars have customer letting over them, but those cars are leased and exclusively operated by those customers.

It's OK if the car is owned by, leased to, or specifically assigned to the customer it's lettered for. But having unrelated advertising on a general service car is a no-no. Wisconsin Southern actually run into this rule a few years back with a special car they had painted up with Sargento Cheese graphics. They had other cars with special paint or lettering promoting Model Railroader, the US Armed Forces, breast cancer research etc., but the Sargento car became a problem because that was a customer and it wasn't a dedicated service car. All of the Sargento names and logos had to be blacked out.

http://canadianfreightcargallery.ca/cgi-bin/image.pl?i=wsor503194&o=wsor
 
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I really like the old billboard reefers....I have about another 6-8 waiting to be weathered and have new couplers added.IMG_3505.jpgIMG_3506.jpg
 
I myself just enjoy collecting the Beer cars,have in the area of 60 of them now and several steam locomotives capable of hauling them all!
 
Now-a-days, they'd be obliterated by graffiti. So, what would be the point of going to all that additional expense?
 
I liked the billboard cars of the steam era and still have several even though my layout is more modern. I have a Wisconsin Pea Growers car that Train Miniatures produced in the 80's. This car may never run on my layout, but may be become a train side storage "building" in the near future.

At the peak of beer brewing in Milwaukee, you would find Pabst, Miller, Blatz and Schlitz operations.

I was born and raised near Milwaukee and well know the "Beer Line". I could see why Schlitz didn't want a Miller car parked in front of their brewery. The competition between breweries was fierce and Milwaukee was well known and famous for neighbor tavern's where individual tavern customers were beer brand loyal and the taverns posted their customers' favorite beer brand on exterior signs provided by the breweries. Seldom would you see more than one brand sign outside any tavern.

It was common in Milwaukee to have at each main intersection a tavern on each street corner. These taverns were the social centers of the neighborhood.

Just a little Milwaukee tavern history.

Greg
 
Growing up in Mpls Minn.in the 50s-60s well remember there being 8 to 10 taverns in a 2 mile stretch of the main drag! Lol
 
Engineer:

Even today, I know of areas in the Milwaukee metro area that will beat the 8-10 taverns in a two mile stretch. Still not as many as in the 50's.

Greg
 
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