Leo, Bob and Tom,
Keep in mind that when the Denver Shop was painting smokeboxes and
fireboxes silver in the late '50s, they were also painting cab roofs
chinese red (YUK!). Witness photos of 5632 after visiting Denver.
Actually, when they painted the smokeboxes and fireboxes silver, they
defeated the purpose of the graphite. I am sure they used heat
resistant silver paint, but they were now painting the locomotives for
decorative rather than practical purposes. The graphite (and oil that
it was mixed with to make it flow for application purposes) was applied
to the surfaces when they were hot, not cold (smokeboxes and fireboxes
on Q locomotives were not lagged and thus were very hot when the
locomotive was under steam). That way, the oil dissipated and the
graphite literally melted onto the surface. I have heard that if
graphite was applied "cold", it would not adhere.
As for the color, think ground up pencil lead or the graphite that can
be purchased at auto parts stores for lubricant purposes. Normally, it
is a dry powder. As noted above, the oil component made it spray-able
for application. I have seen photos of it being applied and smoke was
raising from the surface which, I am sure, is the oil component burning
off. Generally, when freshly applied, it was a relatively light gray
color, but as the locomotive continued in service, it darkened,
primarily due to the environment it operated in. Generally, soot and
cinders from the stack "rained" down on it blackening and streaking it.
Rain water carried the soot down the sides, further darkening it. Thus,
in photos, it appeared to be a variety of colors and largely was
dependent on how recently it was coated.
For modeling purposes, and probably for the painting of 4978, I have
successfully mixed flat black and flat silver to obtain a very
reasonable replication of the color. Since the locomotive is not hot
(darn!) and real graphite can't be used, a paint mixture would be the
next best choice. In any case, except for a few locomotives assigned to
Denver in the late '50s, silver is not correct. Now, what color are
they going to use for the cab roof?
Bill Barber
On Sunday, August 7, 2005, at 04:52 AM, CBQ@yahoogroups.com wrote:
> Date: Sat, 6 Aug 2005 17:20:36 -0400
> From: "Bob Yarger" <ryarger@rypn.org>
> Subject: Re: Smoke box color (and fire box too)
>
> Sorry, I did not read your post carefully. Only photos 1957 and later
> (C&S)
> would be aluminum. Older photos that appear white are probably just
> the
> result of films at the time, or perhaps yellow camera filters, which
> some
> photographers used to bring out clouds, etc., in b&w photos. What
> brand is
> your P48 0-4? I didn't know that any were made, though there were some
> plain O scale USRA 2-8-2 heavies imported.
>
> Bob Yarger, Editor
> Railway Preservation News (free website)
> www.rypn.org
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "captmix" <tamix@earthlink.net>
> To: <CBQ@yahoogroups.com>
> Sent: Saturday, August 06, 2005 2:34 PM
> Subject: [CBQ] Smoke box color (and fire box too)
>
>
> This is a question I have asked before.what is that "color" on the
> smoke box and fire box. In fact I have just painted a P48 scale USRA
> O-4 Class engine. I "fiddled" with some mixtures to try and duplicate
> what that color was. In all those pictures by Corbin, Perry, and
> others, the Burlington smoke boxes sure looked a shade of "white" even
> back in the 20's. Even some color shots like in Bulletin #35 show a
> white shade.
>
> I do have a color VCR tape of C&S steamers and in that are two
> engines, one C&S and one CB&Q, side by side, and the Burlington engine
> is a definite gray while the C&S is white. This was in the late 50's.
> But could all those B&W photos from years gone by be wrong? Do I have
> to repaint that O-4?
>
> Tom Mix
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