Man, after CAREFUL research, and finding JUST the right mix of primer and paint and CAREFULLY painting the body of my deralict coach a very nice deep chocolate brown (as was the color of the Denver South Park and Pacific equipment) and labeling it nicely...I find an obscure reference to the UP equipment after they took over the line from the DSP&PRR...it was and I quote "an olive green." AARRRrgggghhhh!! Well, I now have a choice...leaave it as is (changing the label to DSPPRR) or overcoat the brown with an olive green, then selectively "flake" the green to show the brown underneath (thus not wasting my handy work and showing age on the UP car as the C & S took over) OR I can strip the brown and start over with the green. The idea here is to take this dead car I got from the Bay place and back date it. I have reworked the roof, creating a duck bill style and started working the body. Anyhow, what do you guys think I should do here? Which would be more interesting? John
Well, my choice would be to pre-date anything UP. :teeth: Also, I think the chocolate color might be unique to a model RR. Most folks who paint, likely have shades of green or maroons. Boxcab E50
Hmmmm....maybe I should leave it but change the label to DSP. It would be less work, make an interesting model colorwise and fall under the "it could have happened" file (it could have happened that the UP did not paint the coach). John
What is the cut-off date for your modeled time frame? I can't remember. Seems like it's well before WWI? Boxcab E50
Yep, we are modeling specifically the Fall of 1899. C & S has been in control for almost a year at this point and much of the inherited rolling stock/motive power has already been repainted, but there is still a lot that has not. Problem is that the UP had the line for about 15 years prior to C & S and most definatley have repainted the passenger cars, even though it appears to have kept the brown paint on the freight cars. So, for accuracy I guess I will have to go with "olive" green, which I am assuming is likely the same as pullman green or slightly darker. JC
This is actually in response to your blog entry, but I got cut off at 500 chars, so.... Well, I saw your other post about this. I would consider the following: 1. Good paint jobs don't come along every day. If this thing is a gem like you say, LEAVE IT. 2. Until you announced it to the several thousand here, there probably aren't a dozen people that would know, FOR SURE, that what you did wasn't correct. If they did know, and said something, then best case it starts a great conversation about old passenger cars. Worst case it just leads that person to your nearest exit door for being a pompous arse, but I don't really see that happening. 3. You can only do so much in your research. At some point you gotta say, "I've done what is reasonable and rational, and 99.99% of the population would not do more than what I have to gather this information, I'll accept it." If two weeks later you find the new info, that doesn't change anything about that last quoted statement. You were fine with it, and are fine with it. If you do another one, it will be "more correct", until you find out in two more years that there were really only two done that way and your original one was the real McCoy. 4. Being a "nut" (and I'm bigtime guilty of this) sometimes takes away the lustre of being a good modeler. Would you rather have 90% of your projects done to 90% accuracy, or 15% of your projects done to 99% accuracy? And being beat down with self imposed pressure to get everything right may not be the best use of your hobby time. (although, to be fair, I do understand that there is the satisfaction element involved...so I'm on the same page) I'm not judging here, just thinking outloud. And I've certainly never been accused of being a good modeler.
You guys are great. These are all things that I have had running through my head too. Yep, not too many folks would know, and even fewer would really care, but I WOULD know and it would be like an itch you can't reach. Don't get me wrong...I am far from a rivet counter when it comes to this stuff, but there is some satisfaction in knowing that it is close to historically correct. I have the week to think about it but I am really leaning toward olive green. If I ever decide to model the DSP and PRR instead at least I will know the right color combo for the cars John
I WENT GREEN Well, here it is after I went green. Decided on Coach Green for a little difference between UPD & G green and C & S green. You can still see the brown color in the roof frame. More on this car later... John
Well, it does look good from here. This has me thinking about one of my Bachmann passenger cars. A coach. Which I cannot get the darned roof completely off. One side is hooked. And won't let go! No obvious signs of any adhesive. Argh! Boxcab E50
Lift the loose side then try lightly squezing the roof sides, that might do the trick. Unfortunately you cant remove the trucks or anything unless you get the roof off...everything is held together with internal screws... John
Once I got the trucks loose the screw for the lighting wire was visible. I removed it and cut the brass connector real close to the end. Although I don't think I will put lighting back in, I cut the wire close to where it attached to the connector so it would be eaasy to re-solder it to the connecter. As I say, I won't likely put lighting back in because the track powered lighting in these coaches is not very good. Maybe if I go DCC, butI really have never liked lighting in coaches anyhow... John
Looks like I'm a day late and dollar short. May I back track to original post? NO! Well! I would leave it as is. Who's to say a bunch of rowdy rail fans didn't get together and restore it to it's original colors. My two cents. At today's rate of inflation that holds little value. I hate that when that happens. Have fun.
