Re: D&RGW 5900 series Stock Car Question (model content)

I'm looking for clarification on when the actual paint color of the 5500 series and 5900 series stock cars were actually painted black, as the FoCTSRR will be repainting some stock cars this summer. Both historians Victor Stone in his book "Taking Stock..." and Robert Sloan in his book "A Century + Ten..." are in agreement that the 5500 series cars were painted black during their 1926 rebuild. It is not so clear about the one hundred 5900 series stock cars which were built in 1923. Mr Sloan says they were painted black, but Mr Stone does not mention the color these cars were painted. At the time the 5900 series cars were built, the standard color seen on Rio Grande narrow gauge freight cars was the existing Prince's Mineral Brown (adopted in 1903) or the new Freight Car Red which appeared in 1921. It seems unlikely that the 5900 series cars, if originally painted brown or red, would undergo a costly repaint to black so soon rafter construction (in fact, the only heavy repairs accomplished on the 5900 series fleet occurred in 1927). Further complicating this issue is the aforementioned 1937 telegram from Alamosa to train masters in Durango, Gunnison and Montrose directing them not to load any red stock cars in their territory, but to send them to Alamosa to be painted black. Could the red stock cars mentioned in the 1937 telegram be just the 5900 series stock cars?