Hello, I am working on an SLSF article and I am trying to get the red/orange color as close to prototypical as possible. If I match the slides exactly, the newer Kodachromes show the red as red (especially on the GP38-2's)... not really orangish. The older slides show the color to lean more toward orange... including an F-M switcher that really leans toward orange-red. I'm considering the fact that the older slides may show some fading and they are fading toward orange, rather than pink, as sometimes happens with older transparencies. Also, I'm considering that the newer power may have actually received paint that had less of an orange look to it. I also have to take into consideration that paint may have faded on older units. I believe someone on this site mentioned that they used the red EMD-Demo paint on all of their units. I considered this, and am currently using the photo of GP35 Demo at the NY World's Fair from TRP Magazine Issue #72, page 60 as a benchmark. Can anyone verify that the red used on the old FM switchers would be the same as that on the U30B's and GP38-2's, etc, or did you detect any variations in the color? I know that paint itself evolved over the years, so there likely was a slight variation... as I mentioned, the Kodachromes of the 400-series units are consistently a redder red than I'm seeing on the other units, and the F7's definitely seem to look more orangish. I'll look forward to any and all input and suggestions -- thank you!
Thanks klrwhizkid. I'm weighing that against another post I found... http://www.frisco.org/vb/showthread.php?t=2566&highlight=demonstrators I see so many people referring to Frisco Orange, yet the post you referred me to says that it is Red!
Back when the Frisco gave shop tours in Springfield during the Springfield Model Railroad meet Bob Wintle asked our tour guide what color they used for the orange on the locomotives. Our guide took us over to a large cabinet and in it were cans of chevy engine red spray paint which he said were used to touch up the locomotives. This may not be the official color when repainting an entire locomotive but it was close enough for the touch up work. John Chambers
My uncle who worked as a switch man on the Lidenwood route said that the "official" color of the Frisco o/w locomotive was "Mandarin Orange" as in the fruit, but he said that the Lidenwood shops used Chevy Orange for the touch up jobs also. By the way, if you can find Chevy Orange in a flat tone or semi-gloss it works great when painting plastic shells to match the Frisco o/w cab scheme.
Chevrolet Engine Block Red is indeed what it was, at least at the beginning. That is the color EMD used on their GP35 and DD35 demo units, and that is what the SLSF selected for their new color scheme. When I was a kid, my dad bought a 1957 Chevy Bel Air 4drHT with a 283 V8 - it was our first V8 in the family. I'll never forget the color of the engine - I kept it spotless. I learned to drive in that car. Later, after the SLSF selected the o/w color scheme for their next purchases of GP35's (the first batch was in b/y), and when the Frisco started to repaint b/y units, and when GE started supplying U-boats in o/w (the first batch was in b/y), and when new EMD units after the GP35's showed up in o/w, the color(s) changed a bit. I certainly do recall first seeing the then brand new, just delivered GP40-2's at Lindenwood, and telling son Kurt - "Those are a much deeper red!". Plus, they weathered and faded like crazy. My advice - don't worry about the specific shade of o/w. Certainly the model manufacturers don't seem to! Ken
John is correct. I was quite shocked to see an entire flammable cabinet completely full of Krylon Chevrolet Engine Red spray can paint. Some where in my vast collection of slides I have a picture of the cabinet with the doors open. Unfortuneately I am unable to locate just where that set of slides is stored. they may have inadvertantly been taken to the landfill when moving 18 years ago, along with my wifes' brand new Iron. That is another story for another time. I am holding out hope that I will find them when I get around to cleaning out my old storage shed. El Bob Oh. PS: Never toss out your wifes Iron!
