How long did the Santa Fe have four dots behind A.T.S.F.?
When, i.e. in which year, did they get rid of them?
(If I recall correctly, the ampersand was dropped earlier.)
Javier
The first gondolas painted without the periods after the letters were the "war emergency" cars of 1943. The current MTL mill gon offerings are Ga-48 class, which were delivered in 1940. Note that while ATSF changed from A.T.S.F. to ATSF in 1943 on new cars, photographs indicate that many existing cars wore the earlier lettering for many years after, until their next major shopping or repaint.
The original batch (Ga-47 of 1937) which are nearly identical had A.T.&S.F. and later postwar (near) copies were ATSF. The major differences between the various classes, other than original lettering, were the pattern in the steel of the drop ends, and the style of trucks.
