Was away from my computer working in Montana so here are a few pics of roof walks. All are Chione pics. In Dick Dorman's Rocky Mountain Railroads on the RGS are some of the color Rasmussen pictures which show painted roof walks quite well. The roofs took so much abuse that they weathered very quickly.
With the horrible condition of of a lot of the cars in late color pictures it is easy for a lot of people to think the roof walks were not painted. The paint is so weathered on these cars that the metal is losing a lot of the paint also.
Here are a couple of shots a 1952 Westbounder into Gunnison. The remains of paint on the roof walks is quite obvious.