Re: RGS 0404 lettering scheme

Last photo I have of it with the box herald was in August of 1941. It had been completely resheathed in 1940 and received the herald, which was going on all repainted equipment during that era. Next time it shows up in published photos is July of 1947 on the Nolan Black excursion and it has RGS on the side, so sometime during that period is when it was changed. This is the way it appeared until the end of the line. There was some talk that the herald too much resembled the 'rising sun' of the Japanese Empire and was therefore shelved during the hostilities, only to be resurrected in the late 1940s. I would suspect the cost of paint was more like it. "RGS" took less paint than the herald. Besides, the Geese were the most prominently viewed equipment during the war and they kept the herald until the 1946 rebuild with bus bodies.