478's 1950 "Bee"

As some of you know, I have been recycling a 1990 Sundance Calendar, since they are no longer being printed.

When I flipped over the September page this morning, there is a great picture of 473 in it's original "Bumblebee" scheme with box headlight and fake stack at the Silverton Depot in August, 1950.

The caption contains the following quote, which I believe someone has referenced in one of our discussions:

"Photographed at the Silverton Depot on August 27, 1950, No. 473 was resplendant - if that is the right word - in a livery devised for a Rupert Beer advertisement."

I believe this is probably the answer to why 473 was painted in this way, but it was actually just the same "scheme" that was done for 268 a year earlier, but the livery was clearly not "devised" new for the ad. But the fake stack and the box headlight were devised for it.

Probably the most relevant aspect in later years of 473 in the Bumblebee was not the Bumblebee colors, but that fake stack. That definitely caught on.

Anyway, I thought I'd put this on the NGDF, because the Rupert Beer ad probably spawned the fake stack that became the trademark in later years of the "Silverton".