michael Wrote:
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> I love the pictures and I love the graphite on the
> smoke boxes of the locomotives. How far the C&T
> has come!
aluminum paint was used on the smokeboxes until the late 1980's when I started mixing up "graphite colored" paint using high temp flat black and the same high temp aluminum to get a metallic gray. My thought is that it looks good, was historic in appearance and it weathered much more gracefully than basic aluminum. The first time engine coughed up a wad of sooty water, it trashed the paint job. In doing my research for the color, I found the D&RGW paint spec which showed the smokeboxes painted "Staybrite front end polish" Well, looking through he oaint car one day I found a 10 gallon bucket labeled "Staybrite Front End Paint".
Wow!. It was basic metallic medium gray. That's what I based it on.