I believe that the paint job for the museum / historic society owned engine should be painted in the last scheme that it was operated on, in that part of the world by a private company. This rule would be changed of course if the engine wase mechanically / phisically altered in some way to represent and erlier version by someone else. There are professional curators that would have stack of rule books / paperwork, to cover this subject, but as was pointed out above, a WORKING steam engine automatically breaks many of the curator rules by the fact that it must continue to operate, and therefor be changed over time (mechanical advances/ FRA, safety issues, etc.). I believe that it is the duty of the currator to PRESERVE as much history as possible, NOT TO RECREATE IT. On a working steam railroad this task would be infintely hard to do, but everything from bearing surfaces, to types of steel used, to what kind of paint was applied, SHOULD be considered before the tolls of financial burdens and working steam railroad reality hit the curator in the face. Preserving a paint job, in as much as possible to the original paint job used when last used n private hands, should outway thoughts of "recreating" paint jobs from an earlier time period. This only applies though if the last "original" paint job still exists. If a given locomotive was sold and repainted, sold and repainted again ( to other tourist lines) and then finally ends up in a museum / historical societies collection - then I think the paint job should be applied to match the mechanical make up of the current engine, closest to teh time period that it looks like mechanically, (IE, snowplows attached, tenders changed, tool boxes, cabs, bells, steam domes, etc) and usually this is the also the last paint job it saw in regular service.
Now for some real flaming material..... A lsit of what I think they should be painted......
My rules for paint jobs (as if my opinion had any wieght and I were king)(and really could care less, this is just for fun, so flame me if you want).
The "new" GLR equipment that will be showing up at Silver Plume.
-Anything that once operated in Colorado, should have a paint job, as near as possible, to how it looked when last in service by a private railroad firm (excluding other tourist railroads).
-Cars that have been sent to Orange County Choppers and look NOTHING like their original configuration, should be painted in railstars GLR company paint scheme - whatever the powers that be decide on this, as long as all cars of non historic value are painted in the same scheme, and naturally I would have them in "common" railroad colors (black, grey,olive / pullman green, "oxcide red", etc.) - not flaming yellow / safety / hunter orange / Thomas blue.
-Newly built cars, or second hand cars that were originally built for a tourist RR, painted as above.
-Historic equipment from other states, or from around the world, I would paint using the same rules as the Colorado equipment ( yes, I know it would be a little wierd to see MAUI SUGER PLANTATION stincilled on the side of a locomtive, but maybe that would get a lot of question, wich would get alot of historic answers, and maybe some regular Johnn Q Publics would gain some respect for the enourmous effrot that preserving this stuff takes.
THE DURANGO AND SILVERTON....
- Reletter anything still close to original condition in Rio Grande Logo's - I know - Pipe dream.
C&TS
- Kill the C&TS logo - everything else is pretty mutch there.
