I have an fa fb fa set in black and grey lightning stripe scheme. Did the nyc have the same color for the passanger cars? And was it black and grey or was it more of a dark grey light grey scheme?
The first years of the “Lightning Stripe” paint scheme were light grey with a dark grey lightning stripe on both the engines or cars. around 1948 the paint scheme became what is probably the best known paint job of dark grey body color with a light grey lightning stripe. The 1948 20th Century Limited was painted in that scheme. The new Walthers 20th Century train set is the closest color match as reported by the NYC Historical Socitey in their fine magazine the Century Headlight. Many people say that scheme is to dark, but Walthers says they used actual paint chips to get the color right. I have the Walthers Century set and it is much darker than my other decorated cars and engines that I have. The real paint does weather into a lighter grey, and my response is that I bought the whole set including the engines. The paint job is more complicated than it looks because the white lines that outline the lightning stripe are themselves outlined with aluminum (silver) paint in a very thin seperation line. The scheme did evolve through time to simplify it. The thin seperation is inperceptable in most photographs, and non existant on most models. The Walthers 20th Century trainset does have the line, but it is to wide so it is visible to the naked eye on a 1/87th model, and even then it is best seen with a magnifying glass. IIRC the prototype line was 1 1/2 inch wide. I am at work right now so I cant look it up in my library.
The freight diesels were painted with a black carbody with the same light grey color for the lightning stripe.
Paul
Dayton and Mad River RR
Thanks for the detailed reply Paul. I will pick up some dark grey and light grey to give my passanger cars a paint job. It wont be exact but close enough for me.