Nelson:
To expand on Jerry's message, practically all of the photos I have seen in the 1950's shows the signal bridges in mineral red. I don't know when the decision to switch to silver was made, but would guess it was the late 50's when the Q switched paint colors
for a lot of things. For an individual bridge, your best bet is to find a photo.
When the remote interlockings were installed at Highlands and West Hinsdale in 1954, the westerly bridge for Highlands and easterly bridge for West Hinsdale were erected second-hand still in mineral red. When CTC was installed between Aurora and Galesburg
(from 1964 to 1968) many of the intermediate bridges were re-spaced, and that is when they were repainted silver from the photos I have seen. The bridges at control points may or may not have been repainted. The bridges at the CP at Montgomery have fresh
silver paint in photos in the Fall of 1963, about a year before CTC. The west bridge was destroyed by the 1964 wreck, but the replacement bridge was also silver. The east bridge at Somonauk, however, was still mineral red in November 1968, 3 years after
CTC was installed. It was silver after merger when I personally saw it.
>From the above examples, I concluded that there was no specific criteria for repainting. Possibly it had to do with the condition of the steel angles on the bridges, some of which were pretty small.
CB&Q (and BN) used a silver paint called 'Subox'. This was a very strong, durable, paint that I was told had an epoxy-type base. When it was first applied, it had a bright silver appearance, which then turned to a light gray but never seemed to fade beyond
that.
Glen Haug
From: CBQ@groups.io <CBQ@groups.io> on behalf of Jerome (Jerry) Albin <jeralbin@comcast.net>
Sent: Thursday, October 3, 2019 3:03 AM
To: CBQ@groups.io <CBQ@groups.io>
Subject: Re: [CBQ] Burlington Structure Paint Color Question
I have slides of signal bridges taken at Western Springs and Naperville in the early 60's showing the mineral red paint. There are also numerous sites on line that show CB&Q signal bridges and other steel structures in the mid 50's to the mid 60's in mineral
red. Regards...Jerry Albin