On Tuesday, May 17, 2005, at 01:50 PM, ed_mines wrote:
I'm still confused regarding running boards in general. In one of
the other Ed's RPCs it stated wooden roof walks usually weren't
painted. You can see the grain of the wood in almost every B&W photo
I can recall.
Ed,
The general statement about running boards "usually being unpainted"
was made in RP CYC Volume 3 in an article by Pat Wider on box car
painting practices. This statement was based on a large number of AC&F
painting specifications per bills of materials for cars built 1931 to
the mid-1940s for cars equipped with wood running boards. In the same
paragraph it is stated that exceptions included running boards painted
the same basic car color (ATSF), black (GN), or preservative called
Termiteol (IC and NP). I really don't know to what extent Pat made the
calculations and whether it was based on total numbers of cars built
with painted/unpainted wood running boards or total orders (i.e., lot
numbers) having painted/unpainted wood running boards.
Subsequent to RP CYC Volume 3 being published, I acquired the bills of
materials for Pullman-Standard cars built 1929-1947 at Bessemer,
Alabama, plus a number of cars built at Butler, Pa. Of the box car
orders equipped with wood running boards during this time period per
these bills of materials, approximately 62% of the orders specified
running boards to be painted (either brown or red paint) or coated with
car cement (only one order with black car cement). Nearly all of these
orders specifying painted wood running boards occurred between 1929 and
early 1938. After this time the vast majority of orders with wood
running boards did not specify them to be painted. Incidentally, the
final box car order built at the Bessemer facility and equipped with
wood running boards was for CGW (lot 5805, built 9-45). When taking
into account the quantity of cars built, there were 10,045 cars with
painted wood running boards and 12,469 box cars with unpainted wood
running boards. Thus, counting orders with painted/unpainted running
boards vs. the quantity of cars built with painted/unpainted running
boards yield quite different answers.
Interestingly, one order for P&LE and LS&I box cars (lot 5625, built
7-40) stated only the edges of the wood running board to be painted
with the same paint used on the car sides, but it specifically denoted
that the top of the running board was not to be painted. These cars
were built to NYC's general painting practices at the time.
I want to emphasize this assessment is a sample of painting practices
used on new cars. The data does not include repainted cars and how wood
running boards may or may not have been painted in company shops. I
hope this sheds a little light on some general tendencies of the
industry on a sample of new cars built during the time period of the
1930s to mid-1940s. For modeling a specific car depicting a prototype
car at a specific point in time, these general industry tendencies
really don't mean all that much. It's the general tendencies and
practices of the railroad that matters most.
Regards,
Ed Hawkins
