Re: Rio Grande C-18 #319 Mystery Paint

Thanks for the comments, Greg! I suspect someone from the film (maybe producer Nat Holt) saw the #319's paint job progressing and told them to make it look like the #268. Thy will be done. But I figured someone out there may know for sure, so I asked. The #473's "bumblebee" (personally I dislike that cutesy term) paint scheme ended with its plunge into the Animas River in July 1951, while "Denver & Rio Grande" was still being filmed. After that, it was back to black, with the stack (which was made for #268's Chicago Railroad Fair appearance and went back onto #268 for the Denver premiere of the movie in 1952).