I notice from various photos of UP EMD F units, that dark green was painted on the top of the “nose” (?).
Was that to reduce sunlight glare reflecting into engineer’s eyes, compared to having armor yellow in that area, or was it just a variation of the UP color scheme used for the EMD F units?? [;)]
Any other UP locos receive a similar area of dark green? (I reckon it looks quite good [:)])
Dave [:)]
I have seen the same green color on the top of the nose on the UP “executive E-9” units, are those the ones you are thinking of?
Yup,
Anti glare, for when it rains, at night…the yellow reflects light up into your eyes.
Sunlight also.
The green has slowly been replaced by the gray…you can still find a few SD40-2s running around with the green, but for the most part, it is gone.
Ed
It is a special paint to reduce both sunlight and headlight reflections from blinding the engineer. It is designed to reflect light away from the cab when it comes from in front or behind the cab. [2c]
And, on the wide cabs we see down here, the gray nose paint has a heavy no slip texture in it…really heavy.
Was side by side with the Es a few years ago, by comparison, the green was relatively smooth, although it appeared to have a light texture.
Ed
Ah! Thanks guys - good to get confirmation.
Dave
The Gray is a “phase II’” version of the green. I am told it is quite hy-tech stuff and fairly directional in that it reflects forward but not backwards, the grey that is.
Many of the pre-war Streamliner cab units didn’t have it. The experimental GE steam turbine didn’t either. A builders photo of new E6 units from 1940 shows an all yellow nose, but in service pictures show the green was applied during the war years. Maybe it started as a wartime blackout restriction???
All postwar cab units had it, including PAs, FAs, F3s, E’s, Gas Turbines, plus all low nose hood units up until recently as mentioned in another reply.
I’ve never seen a live UP GP-20, but if the Life-Like models are anything like the prototype I believe the Geeps had the green on top of the nose as well.
IIRC, UP started painting the top of the short hood gray on their own units after the MP SD50’s. Plus UP started painting the trucks on their locomotives gray instead of silver after the MP SD50’s as well.
I didn’t realize so many postwar UP cab units had green on the low nose hood. Ed mentioned earlier that there are still a few SD40-2s still operating with dark green on the short hood.
What years are we looking at for the conversion to grey? late 1960s? or early 1970s?
Dave