Re: Early shots of the C&TS by Neal Reich

Earl Wrote:
=======================================================
> michael Wrote:
> ==================================================
> =====
> > 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.

Thank you for the information, Earl. Much helpful. I like it because it helps the locomotive pop in the pictures as suppose to the current all black or dark grey.