Atlas Summer Catalog... (Those beer cars must have been popular)

[C855B]

Except for the ones that did 

http://www.railgoat.railfan.net/other_cars/1private/hamms/hamms.htm

Touché. 

Ed's Law, obviously.

[Missaberoad]

Touché. 

Ed's Law, obviously.

There was quite a few companies with cars in the 1960s for some reason (coinciding with the return of a number of "Billboard" style schemes for private owners across the fleet)

That being said, your point of beer being shipped "incognito" remains valid for most of history. At various points, Miller would use cars marked "Dairy Shippers Dispatch" and Budweiser would use Manufacturers Railway cars disguised in a Purina checkerboard scheme. 

[mu26aeh]

We get water shipped in occasionally for trailers with a Budweiser wrap on the trailer. 

[dem34]

Was going to say before seeing this page, like I am starring at a handful of photos in my collection of various clearly branded Beer cars at my local, former Rhinegold distributor's siding so it couldn't have been that uncommon in the 60s-70s.

[John]

We get water shipped in occasionally for trailers with a Budweiser wrap on the trailer.

Bud light?

[Missaberoad]

Was going to say before seeing this page, like I am starring at a handful of photos in my collection of various clearly branded Beer cars at my local, former Rhinegold distributor's siding so it couldn't have been that uncommon in the 60s-70s.

Very era/region specific tho, Not uncommon in the 1960s-early 70s and in the Billboard Reefer era (Pre 1937) but still the minority of cars overall. and pretty much unheard of outside those two eras.

[milw156]

I'd say so. Even in the '70s, when I worked for SP, there was a big problem with thefts from beer cars, and we're talking about plain ol' tuscan red insulated 60' boxcars. It was clearly an organized effort where the bad guys knew what to look for. So there's no way in heck that there would be cars emblazoned with product identity. No way.

I believe Nestle had the same issue with their cars, and switched from billboard to reporting marks only because of it. Wish WOT would rerun that scheme, The Milwaukee served the Burlington, Wisconsin plant on the Racine and Southwestern branch up to the Soo line sale, which coincidently ran directly across the street from Nestle's.

[johnb]

...sigh... I'm going to have to get those Olympia cars. It was the one brewery I actually toured... 43 years ago... as something to do before setting out to railfan the about-to-die MILW Western Extension. Damn nostalgia is makin' me spend money!

I am waiting for a wood Olympia reefer...I have toured the Tumwater Brewery many times, we might have been on the same tour