I came across this picture http://www.rr-fallenflags.org/el/frt/el20102.jpg on the Fallen Flags site. The question I have is …What color is the lettering on this car? I know that it is not black. If you compare it to the black lube plate you can see a definite difference. This discussion came up at a recent train show I was at and we never got a good consensus as to the color. I am thinking it is the EL maroon or a variation of it. Being that I suffer from a pretty severe case of colorblindness I can’t say for sure. One of the guys in the discussion is insisting it is black. A couple others were going either way. I figure there has to be someone with better knowledge of these cars.
I’m not any kind of expert, but I would say the paint was originally black and is now really faded. If you look at the shade of the black patches at the data points, you can see that it is darker than the faded to gray, but both are black. A similar fading is evident on the tank car in the foreground but not as bad yet. My 2c anyway. J.R.
