I recently purchased the Walthers A&B IC Units in N Scale. The color does not match any cars that I have been able to find. The lettering on the cars are yellow and the brown darker. I am looking for locomotives that will match that color. Does anyone know of where I might find them or how I may repaint them to match?
Thanks for any help.
I’ve had the same problem over the years – each manufacturer has a different opinion on what colors to use for IC equipment. Even the real IC train colors did not always match.
yeah, but, their paint jobs were a closer match that the model equipment out there. i think a lot of the problem with IC colors is caused by the fact that that railroad kept their equipment clean so their consists were pretty well consistent in appearance.
the ICRR is my old alma mater and the best outfit i ever worked for. i remember when they were still hand wiping passenger cars with a chamois at the St Louis coach yards at the time some roads had quit washing passenger cars at all. but, that was when Wayne Johnston still ran the outfit and now he is dead and i am gettng close.
if you use railroad publicity photos for the basis of your color analysis then they will always tend to be too perfect.
grizlump
Good things are worth working for, so don’t give up.
Everyone certainly has a right to their own opinion, but to me an IC passenger train was the most beautiful of all the trains of that era. My Dad was a conductor on the IC out of Freeport, Illinois so most of my exposure was to the “Hawkeye” and the “Land-O-Corn”, but I sometimes got to see a “City” train in Chicago. I recall being allowed out on the back platform of the Land-O-Corn as it headed west across Northern Illinois at better than 70 per… (yes, there was a time when they maintained their track to that level).
I model HO steam so I don’t have any specific direction for you. Clearly the best route is to start with some quality color photos of the prototype (such as in Jim Boyd’s Illinois Central: Monday Mornin’ Rails) and work toward matching that. I’m certain that there are custom painters out there who work with N scale, or it is a option/challenge to you to re-paint or re-decal your equipment as needed.
Getting that completed streamliner rolling across your layout will be something to see. Good things are worth working for!
Bill
if u want to go further back to the turn of the '40s, check out the link below for an exciting trip to the City of Miami early paint job.
http://www.mth-railking.com/PDF_Documents/Trains_City%20of%20Miami.pdf