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Rio Grande help, please

Schuyler Larrabee
 

No, not changing roads here, but a friend’s asked me to paint a car for Rio Grande MOW.  He says that the equipment was painted silver, and he’s got direct memories of seeing this equipment before the cutoff of this list, so I have to put at least some credence into what he’s telling me.

 

But the photos I’ve seen suggest that the silver involved wouldn’t be the bright silver that, for instance, ATSF used on the PA trucks, nor the Burlington used on the painted parts of their Es.  It appears to me to be a more grayed-down silver-ish color.  There must be some folks here who can advise me on this, perhaps off line . . . or not.  MOW is freight, after all, according to list rules as I understand them.

 

Schuyler

 
wlhoss@...
 

Schuyler,
 
P-B-L sells Rio Grande MOW gray paint in 1 oz bottles.  I've used their paint a number of time and have had no problems spraying it. Their part number 1-STR-04
 
Bill Hoss
 
 
In a message dated 8/6/2017 5:45:25 P.M. Central Daylight Time, STMFC@... writes:

 

No, not changing roads here, but a friend’s asked me to paint a car for Rio Grande MOW.  He says that the equipment was painted silver, and he’s got direct memories of seeing this equipment before the cutoff of this list, so I have to put at least some credence into what he’s telling me.

But the photos I’ve seen suggest that the silver involved wouldn’t be the bright silver that, for instance, ATSF used on the PA trucks, nor the Burlington used on the painted parts of their Es.  It appears to me to be a more grayed-down silver-ish colo r.  There must be some folks here who can advise me on this, perhaps off line . . . or not.  MOW is freight, after all, according to list rules as I understand them.

Schuyler
Garth Groff <sarahsan@...>
 

Schuyler,

I'm going to agree with Bill on the gray. Looking through Jim Eager's RIO GRANDE COLOR GUIDE TO FREIGHT AND PASSENGER EQUIPMENT, I see several cars which were painted in gray. The gray is not always consistent either, varying in shades, even taking into account weathering and grime. There are silver/aluminum cars too, but I suspect this came either very late in our period of interest, or even later. There is also one single-sheathed boxcar shown in FCR photographed in 1977.

I know we're not narrow gaugers here, but the colors used on narrow gauge equipment are well documented. Most narrow gauge MOW cars were gray right up to the end. I don't think any (or many) narrow gauge cars ever received silver paint. There are lots of color slides that prove this. One would expect that the standard gauge equipment followed a similar color scheme.

Yours Aye,


Garth Groff

On 8/6/17 6:45 PM, 'Schuyler Larrabee' schuyler.larrabee@... [STMFC] wrote:

�

No, not changing roads here, but a friend�s asked me to paint a car for Rio Grande MOW.� He says that the equipment was painted silver, and he�s got direct memories of seeing this equipment before the cutoff of this list, so I have to put at least some credence into what he�s telling me.

�

But the photos I�ve seen suggest that the silver involved wouldn�t be the bright silver that, for instance, ATSF used on the PA trucks, nor the Burlington used on the painted parts of their Es.� It appears to me to be a more grayed-down silver-ish color.� There must be some folks here who can advise me on this, perhaps off line . . . or not.� MOW is freight, after all, according to list rules as I understand them.

�

Schuyler
Allen Montgomery <sandbear75@...>
 

This is the only picture I have on this computer, but it gives you an idea of what the color looks like these days. Sorry, I have better photos, just at home.That might be the last 40' box left on a class 1. I certainly don't come across them. I believe another photo I took shows a built date of 1946 on it. But the MOW paint is coming off everywhere, which you can get an idea of in the pic.The photo was taken at Bond, Co. Allen Montgomery
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