Pennsy H9,10

[uncbob]

So far as I know the Rio Grande NEVER had a loco with a belpaire firebox.  In my opinion  the Pensy"s  locos looked very powerfull, bruteish, and ugly!  Just my opinion.  The H model in question looked so out of place in a Colorado mountain setting that it just totally grossed me out and spoiled the scene.

paul

They are that

[Flashwave]

Lionel made toy trains and did lots of PRR-quasi-stuff because of the market they were in back then..... apparently not much different from now in certain arenas.  I hope that Bachmann is not becoming a toy train player in similar fashion.  With fewer sound equipped generic Spectrum steam locomotives (model-railroader-friendly undecorated models in particular)  and more non-prototypical Durango Silverton trains sets and way-bigger-is-way-better (but largely useless on a typically small layout) stuff like Schnabel cars ....... I don't know what to think.  I'm glad I have what (very nice out of production) Bachmann equipment that I have because I believe a drought is coming.

Fret not young one. I'd just about bet someone else's life that the reason we see so many DRGW overgauged engines is for one reason only: The DRGW.

Not many people model narrow gauge, but lots of people already have a Bachmann set, or their Dad's old layout, or something akin. So what's going to sell for the DRGW in their gift shop? HO or N, it's going to be a standard gauge. And if you really want to split hairs, the DRGW was at one time a dual guage railroad...

Far as the Schnabel car, Bachman will tell you the same thing, they sold it because there's a niche markwet of modern era modellers that wanted a nice High-Wide load and  didn't want to pay Brass prices and din't know the kit versions well enough. Had Bachman:China not done the groundwork for their Schnabel, Bach:USA wouldn't have retooled the molds to do it here.

If you want, take heart in that the 2012 catalog doesn't have the Schnabel cars in it. Cause I for one am sadly dissapointed that I may not have gotten a chance to get one.

(And was kinda hoping Bachmann might tool up some alternative loads) 

[ryeguyisme]

Now if only we can get non-brass DRGW steam

[beampaul7]

AMEN BROTHER!

[ryeguyisme]

belpaire fireboxes don't suit my tastes, thats my biggest beef with PRR then it goes on to tender shape, headlight positioning,the dark green mixed with ark red its just not a good road for me. I'lll say the only belpaire firebox engine I have is an Aristocraft G scale 0-4-0 turned into a 0-4-4t commuter engine and even thats on the waiting list to be shopped down  and those pointed edges smoothened over

[uncbob]

At first I thought the Belpaire boilers were ugly as all get out
But now that I read more and more books on the PRR and visit the RR Museum of PA I have come to really like them

[blf]

If the color is done correctly you can only detect the green color in bright sun light, and then it has to be very clean. Otherwise it looks dusty and smokey flat black! I only noticed the Brunswick green when the sun was out on the K4s when it was on display at Horseshoe Curve one trip. Color was used by the PRR as they determined it held up better than straight black under the then paint manufactures formulas. Information taken from the Keystone from an article dealing with the green color. Cab color was very dark mixture of freight car color and black. In latter days depending on repaints it varied from straight black to straight freight car color and every thing in between depending on what was on hand. Correct colors were followed more closely when repainted at Altoona. Bill

[Doneldon]

I also suspect that, in the days before computer mixing of colors, that even the mighty PRR had variations in the various paints that changed from shop to shop day by day.

PF

Paul-

I'm not so sure. There have been standard colors for many, many years and custom colors were described by the formula of standard pigments which made the color. This all started with the printing industry which was well developed by the third quarter of the 19th Century.
                                                                                                                                                                             -- D

[jward]

it is well documented that the shades of "freight car colour" varied widely on both the pennsy and the b&o. not all the variations seen in old photos can be attributed to fading of the paint or film. there was alot of variation in the actual paint shades themselves.  it is well documented that in the diesel era, certain paint shop foremen didn't follow the official painting diagrams to a t. this resulted in several known examples of switchers with keystones on the front. placement of keystones on the side in places other than those on the paint diagram, etc.

taking those two knowns into account, it is not unreasonable to think something similar occurred with "dark green locomotive enamel."

in later years, penn central had a habit of doing "quickie" repaints where they painted over the keystones and applied their own logos. many of these locomotives lasted into conrail, who painted over the penn central markings, and applied "CR" in their place. i have photos of such locomotives rusting away in the boneyard at altoona in the late 1980s, 20 years after the demise of the pennsy.

[Woody Elmore]

I recall reading somewhere that PRR Brunswick green got its greenish tinge from copper added to the paint. If you own a boat you may paint the bottom of the hull with a copper bearing paint - it deters barnacles (so my neighbor tells me.) Maybe there was a reason for the Pennsy to do this.

I drove cross country in 1970 and on the way home I passed a big PC yard. Sitting on a siding was a black PC E-8 or 9. The afternoon sun was shining on the engine and you could see the PRR dulux gold stripe thought the layers of paint. That speaks to the quality of the repainting.

Oops - I broke my promise never to mention the successor to the PRR and NYC.