Early GN Gas Electrics.

[John Moore]

I have been looking at some of the early photos of the GN Gas Electrics and unfortunately all photos I've found seem to be only in black and white.
I'm looking at the pre- orange and green paint scheme of solid green and at the cab safety stripe treatment that some units had.

The impression I'm getting is of a white background to the cab front with red diagonal stripping similar to the NP. Can anybody shed some light on this for me?

[BoxcabE50]

I don't have anything that predates the orange paint. (They don't look bad in that color. Was just re-watching the Pentrex video....) Now you have me wondering.....

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Boxcab E50

[John Moore]

Originally posted by BoxcabE50:
I don't have anything that predates the orange paint. (They don't look bad in that color. Was just re-watching the Pentrex video....) Now you have me wondering.....

graemlins/headscratch.gif

Boxcab E50 Was busy searching the WWW for anything and looking at a bunch of early Sperry cars as well as for the GN units. Ran across some more GN units pre Builder paint with the cab treatment. Although in B&W there does appear to be a difference between the car body green and the dark stripe to suggest a red stripe on a white background rather than white stripes on the green body.

[BoxcabE50]

From memory, of any stripes I have seen, on any railroads, the combinations have always been black/white, black/yellow, or red/white.

I'd think in a B&W photo, a red would show up as a gray shade?

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Boxcab E50

[Stourbridge Lion]

The problem with allot on B&W is the gray scale isn't well defined so you can't tell colors apart. The same is true with today's digitial camera's without using high end equipment and filers which most of us don't have.

Sometime I get lucky searching Google Images with various general keywords but you have to be willing to go through allot of images to find the one photo you are looking for.

[John Moore]

Originally posted by BoxcabE50:
From memory, of any stripes I have seen, on any railroads, the combinations have always been black/white, black/yellow, or red/white.

I'd think in a B&W photo, a red would show up as a gray shade?

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Boxcab E50 What I'm doing which is not totally scientific is looking at NP photos were I know the colors and then comparing them to the GN units. That fact that all the photos were shot by Otto Perry, with probably the same camera, around the same time period, and most likely developed by him gives me a sort of control sample for comparision. The shading of the darker stripes appear consistent with the NP units which I know are red. Iwould think this scheme would have been around until at least 1950 since the Builder paint didn't start showing up until about 1947 and I would imagine that the repainting would occur during major shopping. The unit I remember in Montana in the late 1950s was still in green.

[John Moore]

Well finally got a fairly definitive answer. Pullman Green sides, with black base on cab front and white diagonal striping. White band at top of cab windows and a white strip at the bottom sill. Not all the gas electrics got this treatment, seems more prevalent out on Lines West.