Rivarossi Hudson Boston & Albany

I recently aquired one of these in Boston & Albany livery. The front boiler is white. The main boiler looks Black with green tint. The cab is solid Black and the tender is almost an army green. Never saw so many shades on one loco. Does this sound correct for the Boston and Albany??
All looks to be factory paint from Rivarossi and the lettering is silver gray.

Thnaks
Bob

 

Black paint seems to have a tendency to have a green tinge under some lighting, and maybe as it weathers/ages. So it sounds like your model has either several different paints on it, of varying quality perhaps, or they are the same paint but in different thicknesses or on different substrates.

Given production methods I'd not be surprised that the cab, boiler and tender got painted in different batches long before final assembly, but I'm a little surprised at Rivarossi not keeping good control on it.

If it had been repainted by a later owner I'd not actually expect what you describe, since he'd almost certainly paint the whole thing in one go with one lot of paint.

 

The Boston & Albany painted their J-2 Hudsons in the same scheme as New York Central non-streamlined steam from the same era, i.e. 1920-1950. A good reference, though in black and white, is The Coming Of The New York & Harlem Railroad by Lou Grogan. The NYC Harlem Division inherited six J-2 Hudsons from the B&A around 1948. Grogan included many excellent photos from all angles with good detail in his book. Some of the photos are as delivered by the B&A, some after re-numbering, but none were re-painted.

 

From Al Staufer's "Thoroughbreds" regarding J-2's---"Graphite was periodically applied to the smoke boxes and boiler fronts were painted white. All trim and lettering was silver and if that wasn't enough, they were actually painted green. Yes, green! We've heard about 28 different color combinations so who knows for sure which is right. Maybe all 28 are. The one we hear most (and it does sound quite logical) is, Pullman Green tender and cab sides, Brewster green boiler and cylinder jackets, graphite smoke box, white face, all striping and lettering silver, and black running gear, cab roof and tender top." I never saw one that I can remember. :tb-biggrin:

 

Boy Jim, I sure don't remember seeing any colors like that when my mother and I delivered and met my father during his commuting days into The City. Of course that was after the B&A transferred the J-2s to the Harlem in '47. By this time the Central was show-casing diesels, washing them as often as possible, and relegating steam to second-class status, and worse.

I just leafed through Ed Nowak's book, New York Central Color Photography, Book 1, looking for anything to help. The only extremely clean graphite smokebox front was Niagara #6011 on delivery day from ALCO. I suppose you might consider the ears and air pump cover to be a shade of dark grey-green, but that is probably a stretch, especially remembering the vagaries of Kodachrome 65 years ago.

There's a photo of #6000 taken in June '45 on the Harmon turntable with good sun light. She's quite dirty, but you can make out a slightly lighter shade of grey on the smoke box from the boiler to the front. The piston chamber cover plate on the steam chest is a very clean silver, apparently just repaired and washed. Whereas the valve chamber cover plate is similar to the smoke box, filthy grey.

The only Hudson that had any sunlit detail was #5326 on the turntable at Harmon, photo'd near the end of WW II. As you can imagine, she was filthy, every inch being shades of soot, coal dust, grime, etc. Nowak's comment..."There was coal soot inches deep on the roundhouse roof..." Of course that's where he had to stand for his shot.

I wonder if Al Staufer's comments referred to the care given steamers during the '30s, before WW-II.

 

I've seen many occurrences of changing colors under different types of lighting. I've had black pants that looked dark green under fluorescent lighting but plain black in incandescent or outdoors. It's quite possible that there are several different types of paint and the factory QC didn't see it because it all looked the same under their lighting.

 

Hank, I think that you are right about the '30's. I have seen photos of white faced J-2's, I just have to find one. :tb-biggrin:

 

Thanks for all the info. Special thanks to Fitz. It's not the light on the paint. I am sure Rivarossi painted it this way, Just like Fitz has discribed. I very unique paint job.

Bob

 

Green's OK

There principal competitor also indulged in green
paint on select main passenger locos circa 1920-30.

The problem, as I remember it, with the Rivarossi
Hudson, is that it does not represent the smaller
drivered B&A Hudsons. With the overlarge flanges
on many of the earlier models (pre Mehano) they
are really noticeable. In any case, keep it rolling
on your varnish, through the dentalstone and
chickenwire scenic mountains of Massachusetts
in good spirits.
Good-Luck, PJB