hi group. modeling the CNW. just received my new BLI SD9 in CNW. i noticed right off the shade of yellow seems a bright “lemon” yellow when compared to my Proto GP7 and SW units, which are a deeper, richer hue. could this be that “zito” yellow, that i’m not familiar with? anybody else notice the same. it sure would look weird running them together, but i’m not a purist- just having fun! mike r.
Even though I’m mainly a CN and CP modeler I do have a few C&NW diesels in my fleet because I like the paint scheme. All of my locos are in the old stagecoach yellow paint scheme, but the yellow varies depending on the model manufacturer and production run. Some locos lean more toward a lemon yellow while others have a faint trace of orange. I don’t worry about it though. C&NW yellow fades and gets dirty with age, and some locos are going to look more yellow than others.
Zito yellow is a bright pale yellow, and it is more likely to be found on low nose diesels (e.g. SD40s, etc). I think Zito was more common in the 1980s. I model the year 1974, so I steered clear of any C&NW loco models in that scheme.
Matching C&NW yellow is one of the toughest challenges there is. The railroad itself went through at least three yellows, starting with what is known as the old yellow, stage coach yellow. That comes across as lemony yellow in some old color photos, and my childhood recollections of the 400 was that it had a lemon yellow color to it, but you never know what is accurately captured and – these days – what is simply the result of a book publisher using technology to unify certain shades of color in the printing.
Old prints and slides do suffer from some color shift as well. My recollection is that the old yellow had a slight touch of orange in it and over time that sometimes, but not always, became more prominent. So by the 1970s CNW freight engines looked very different in shde of yellow from back when passenger units were kept washed.
I believe your Broadway Limited SD is intended to be painted in that old yellow.
Then there was the very pale yellow often called Zito Yellow after a CNW vice president, that in not too long a time faded badly, often to an almost white color. There was a rather naughty name for this yellow that is not exactly a swear word but might be caught by some filter or other so I won’t use it here. But it was pretty accurate in description! When it was brand spanking new Zito Yellow was very attention getting which was probably the point – why fire trucks are now more likely to be yellow than red.
The railroad then adopted what they called Traditional Yellow but it was not really a match for the old old yellow. Sometimes you’d see a train with one engine of each yellow in it and the differences were pretty stark, and of course by that time the old yellow engines were years away from their last painting and, this being the North Western, years away from their last washing too.
Model Railroader publsihed a paint formula for CNW old yellow in the August 1960 issue but the pain
thanks for your input. i agree with your point also on your CNW engines. you just plain like the paint scheme. likewise, i model the CNW but have a couple of Milwaukee units because i just like that basis, blunt, business-like black/orange. regards, mike r.