Hi all! I model a rural branch/interchange line in the 1920’s-1950ish western US. I’m getting ready to weather some cars, both freight and passenger heavyweights, and am curious about roof colors. Obviously the cars, mostly Athearn, are the same colors, sides and roofs. I’ve seen post’s where many of you replicate overspray onto roofs, which suggests to me most roofs were not painted the same colors as the rest of the cars.
Once a long time ago I saw a post that talked about early passenger car roof materials but cannot find that thread. So any help you all can offer regarding roof materials and what colors they might have been is greatly appreciated. Most of the freight cars are reefers, boxcars and stock cars. The heavyweights are Santa Fe’s in the Pullman green and UP in the yellow.
I should have added, I know the freight cars are metal roofs, but don’t know if they would have been galvanized, painted or have some type of coating on them? Thanks.
Some freight cars I have seen, modeled for the same road and era have had roofs the same color as the car sides, others have a silver roof. In one response I saw to a question about this, was that the roofs were light weight galvanized sheet metal and as the cars rumbled along the paint quickly cracked and peeled off the galvanized sheets. Cars modeled by companies looking at photos of new cars had a colored roof, ones modeled from older photos had silver roofs, as there was no paint left on the roof. I would presume that if a car went in for a repaint, if the paint had peeled off the roof it might not have been painted again as the same thing would happen. Overspray certainly would show.
Have also seen that the black on heavyweight passenger roofs was a tar like substance. It was a little flexible and easy to recoat to prevent leaks.
Just a couple of things I remember seeing relating to your questions.
Many freight cars of the 50’s had the roofs either painted the same color or were left in galvanized. After a few years ‘leaks’ develop in the roof system, and ‘car cement’ is painted on the roofs to ‘seal’ them. Much of this car cement is black. So take your choice when painting/weathering.
Roof systems and leaks seem to be an ongoing issue and many forms of freight car roofing systems have been tried through the years.
Most box cars are some kind of box car red(oxide) or a darker ‘tuscan’ red in later years as paint pigment formulation got better. The roofs and ends on reefers varied with the company - oxide and tuscan are typical. I like to weather with a mixture of grime and dust for roofs.
Richard, jim and JaBear, thank you all for your input. JaBear, that pic is perfect and fit’s right in the middle of my time frame. In it, I saw some of the peeling paint from the galvanized Richard talked about. I also saw roofs the same color as the cars, and some black.
Seems I remember from the thread I couldn’t find before, and from what Jim said, I will probably paint the green Pullman roofs black. They are, after all, the cars that got me wondering about this, as somehow the all green, roof and all, was picking at me somewhere inside. Most weathering would be dust and soot from coal burners on the roofs as I have many a tunnel.
This leads me to a secondary question regarding the tar sealer mentioned. I’ve gotten that the passenger cars would be entirely coated with it, but how about the freight cars? Same, or would it be uncommon to see the seams sealed, like mobile homes and travel trailers get? The stuff costs money, and RR cars are all about earning money, so… less material used, less cost and labor, or hit the whole roof for less chance of missed leaks and be sone with it (kind of like insurance)?
I have seen photos that appear to have just the seam area painted. I suspect as the shops went to spray guns, they just painted the entire roof area. The labor cost to brush paint just the seams vs just spraying the entire roof had to be a factor in the decision.
My roster is comprised of 90% reefers, most are of PFE prototypes correct for my 1926 period, here’s what i’ve discovered about PFE roof paint standards:
Those with all wood construction, roof and ends Tucson red
Those rebuilt with outside metal sheathed roofs received a black paint treatment with anti-skid being specified for roof hatch platforms while retaining Tuscan paint for the ends. PFE abandoned black roof paint in the early 30’s as a cost saving measure, thus if you have any Athearn BB examples with metal roofs these should be the same colors as the ends but, never-say-never as by the late forties PFE returned to black for roof paint and both types co-existed for sveral more years, by the mid fiftes, application of Tucson red was virtually extinct, car ends changed to black during this period and the application of alumium and grey roof coating began to appear, especially with regards to mechanical reefers, but no class was exempt from the new standards.
The odd balls of my fleet: Santa Fe Reefer Disptach and PFE jointly ordered new cars from PFC in 1925-26 these PFE reefers were built to SFRD specifications and thus employed Viking or Murphy metal roofs which PFE specificied be delivered in Tuscan red with black anti skid on the hatch platforms! PFE was lukewarm towards these and no others were ordered for PFE use, although SFRD and other operators adopted the design as their standard.
PFE did not permit roof overspray in the era of wooden and early steel construction.
PFE endured severe roof paint peel due to the caustic nature of salt and heavy foot traffic, this effected metal roofs in particular and less so upon wood.
My remaining roster is biased towards Espee and other western prototypes, black paint seems to predominate as roof color.
As to passenger equiptment, SP brush applied a tar like substance containing asbestos to canvas roof edges,
I’m too lazy to look up the exact issue right now, but within the last year MR had an article on weathering boxcars that had a lot of information on car roofs - how to represent galvanized roofs, car cement, etc.
My roster is comprised of 90% reefers, most are of PFE prototypes correct for my 1926 period, here’s what i’ve discovered about PFE roof paint standards:
Those with all wood construction, roof and ends Tucson red
Those rebuilt with outside metal sheathed roofs received a black paint treatment with anti-skid being specified for roof hatch platforms while retaining Tuscan paint for the ends. PFE abandoned black roof paint in the early 30’s as a cost saving measure, thus if you have any Athearn BB examples with metal roofs these should be the same colors as the ends but, never-say-never as by the late forties PFE returned to black for roof paint and both types co-existed for sveral more years, by the mid fiftes, application of Tucson red was virtually extinct, car ends changed to black during this period and the application of alumium and grey roof coating began to appear, especially with regards to mechanical reefers, but no class was exempt from the new standards.
The odd balls of my fleet: Santa Fe Reefer Disptach and PFE jointly ordered new cars from PFC in 1925-26 these PFE reefers were built to SFRD specifications and thus employed Viking or Murphy metal roofs which PFE specificied be delivered in Tuscan red with black anti skid on the hatch platforms! PFE was lukewarm towards these and no others were ordered for PFE use, although SFRD and other operators adopted the design as their standard.
PFE did not permit roof overspray in the era of wooden and early steel construction.
PFE endured severe roof paint peel due to the caustic nature of salt and heavy foot traffic, this effected metal roofs in particular and less so upon wood.
My remaining roster is biased towards Espee and other western prototypes, black paint seems to predominate as roof color.
As to passenger equiptment, SP brush applied a tar like substance&nb