On Jul 11, 2010, at 4:49 PM, Charlie D modeling the Mopac http://
mopac51.tripod wrote:

I'm getting close to finishing up the Tichy rebuilt boxcar and will
decal as one of the P&LE cars in RPC Volume 17 on page 43 using
Jerry Glow's set. P&LE 83759 is pretty weathered with a black NYC
herald (re-weight shows 10-47) and since the cars were rebuilt in
1936-37 I'm assuming this car is still in it's original paint when
they were rebuilt. The other car P&LE 83821 is lightly weathered
and has a re-weight date of 1-54; the herald has no background - so
am assuming it's a repaint since 1936-37.

Actually the cars were rebuilt ca. 1935 and at that time carried
PMcK&Y reporting marks. They were relettered P&LE very shortly
afterwards, however, apparently around 1937. The black herald
backgrounds were applied to cars repainted in the 1930s and early
1940s, were dropped during World War II, and did not reappear until
the shift from RR Roman lettering to Extended Gothic lettering in 1955.

In looking for information on painting NYC boxcars, I came across a
thread where Ed Hawkins mentioned a black roof, underframe and
Sherwin Williams brown ends and sides on a car built in 1946 - did
the P&LE cars also use a similiar standard?

I've never seen any evidence that the roofs were painted black on
these or any other P&LE cars when repainted, and I'd be surprised if
repainted cars got black underframes, either. On the NYC, as on most
other RRs, standard practice for repainting older cars seems to have
consisted of spraying the entire car mineral brown, including trucks
and underframes. Of course, the latter rapidly turned black (or at
least grungy dark gray) from a mixture of journal oil and grime.

Richard Hendrickson