Earl Wrote:
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> 340's paint looks badly faded.
The enamel paint specified for use on D&RGW freight engines in the 1925-1940 period was a far cry from the automobile-quality acrylic that Jeff Ellingson used on the D&S equipment – and C&TS #489 – in 2009-2010. The color itself not only faded, the surface of the earlier paint seems to have oxidized and become "dusty", whereas the modern paint retained a high gloss even after a summer of use under the bright sun at the high altitude of Cumbres Pass. Per Jeff, his modern paint was based on spectrographic analysis of a dried-out sample of 'dark olive green boiler jacket enamel' found in the paint shed in Durango,* so the color of the pigment used is probably very close to the original, but the modern paint is much more glossy so it reflects a lot more color from the sky and thus appears not only brighter but also more bluish than the D&RGW original.
> Also, Montrose was its own little world. They
> kept their engines looking better than most other
> facilities and were known to be quite liberal with
> the application of aluminum paint.
Right, Earl -
IIRC, the worldwide price of bauxite rose by at least $
.05/ton in the late '40's as a result of Montrose' consumption of aluminium paint. The C&TS excessive application of aluminium to 'painted lady' #489 during 2008 and 2009 resulted in only a $
.02/ton price increase. What has puzzled me for several years is why the D&RGW specified the Moffat Green paint for the boiler, cylinder and air-pump jackets of FREIGHT locomotives, when the practice on most roads was to 'tart up' the locos on their premier PASSENGER trains.
- El Abuelo Histœrico, Greengo y Curmudgeoño de los Locomoturas Viejos y Verdes,
aka Der Grossväterlich DünkelOlivGrünDampfKesselMantelLiebHabender
* IMHO, the can discovered in Durango circa 2008 was the remains of the paint applied to the tender of #473 when she was 'tarted up' as Union Pacific #478 for the filming of
'Butch & Sundance' in 1968. See the third and fifth photos on [
ngdiscussion.net] to see what it looked like when after only a few weeks of weathering — very close to the beautiful paint on Southern 190 of the Festiniog Railway as seen in the fourth photo on [
ngdiscussion.net].
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/22/2019 06:35PM by Russo Loco.
