OScaleTrains Rick (not signing his real name) wrote:

Exactly, and proof would be an in service photo of the car in silver
paint...which seems to elude everyone. It was pretty easy for a
builder to
spray whitewash on a whole car.  A little harder to actually letter
it.  And
it would have been really time consuming to letter all the lettering
on it
that is in that photo. 

Baloney. Look at any number of whitewashed car photos and they
always have ALL the lettering.

. . . considering that the manufacturer clearly stated the
car was silver, and painted their sample model silver way back then. 
And
considering that the silk screened decals available for the car since
its
inception were black for a silver car, and considering that of all
the "O"
scale models produced from that kit, as far as anyone has ever seen,
have
been painted silver, and considering that no one has apparently ever
seen
mention in the modeling press of the cars color(silver) being in
error over
the 50 or so decades when the car actually existed and was in
service, seems
to be pretty good circumstantial evidence that the car was probably
silver
color as built. 

Well, bologna again. There have been models produced in silver
paint from misunderstood builder photos before. It is only your
speculation that this is not one of them.

Tony Thompson Editor, Signature Press, Berkeley, CA
2906 Forest Ave., Berkeley, CA 94705 www.signaturepress.com
(510) 540-6538; fax, (510) 540-1937; e-mail, thompson@...
Publishers of books on railroad history