When I purchased my Jerry Brown Hiawatha set from James Hall, it arrived with two Hiawatha vestibules and one City of Denver vestibule. James promised he would fix the problem as he had to go back to the man from whom he had purchased the set and continue his search through the collection for additional McCoy cars. He was certain he would be able to find the Hiawatha vestibule. He never did.
Arno Baars, however, told me that he had completed a thorough search of the man's collection and could say positively that the man did not have another Hiawatha vestibule in his possession. Arno went on to say that with at most five sets of Hiawatha cars having been made it was extremely unlikely that I would ever find a "spare" Hiawatha vestibule for sale. He then said that if he were me he would have it professionally repainted from the yellow and brown of a City of Denver vestibule into the orange and gray of a Hiawatha vestibule.
I am now trying to decide what I should do. Should I leave it as is and explain it as a "transition" vestibule, i.e., a vestibule painted during the period after the Milwaukee Road joined forces with the Union Pacific and repainted all its passenger cars to the Union Pacific's livery, or should I simply repainted the vestibule to the orange and gray of the other Jerry Brown Hiawatha cars in my set? What would you do?
Your thoughts and recommendations would be most welcome.
Bob Nelson
