Santa Fe steam paint

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
1

OK guys…Last night I ran across an undated picture of a Santa Fe Northern as a helper on, what the author said was, the Super Chief. The northern had a black smokebox front.

My question is, what timeframes are appropriate for the black and white fronts? My layout will be transition era (early 50’s) and I’m wondering if i need to repaint the smokebox front on that BLI northern…

Thanks in adavance.

2

The smokebox fronts and stacks of Santa Fe steam locomotives were painted “Tarpon Gray” throughout the 20th century. Floquil “Gunmetal” can be used for this color. Other moders use a medium-light metalic gray. You will find some photos of Santa Fe steam engines with silver or black smokebox fronts, but these are non-standard. Also, unless it was an engine that had just come off a run or was in a deadline, Santa Fe steam locomotives were generally clean. I wi***he BLI 3751 class 4-8-4 was available in N scale. There was a lot of mostly favorable comment (except for DCC bugs) in the ATSF Yahoo group.
Stephanie Stout

3

Thanks for the help, Stephanie. I was beginning to think this post had been overlooked. I am really happy with the BLI locos. I wi***he driver color matched the paint a little better, but it is still a really pretty engine. So how close to the “Tarpon Gray” is the BLI smokebox? Would a little dust of weathering be good enough?

Thanks

4

Santa Fe ‘Tarpon Gray’ was a med. Grey Graphite - non mettalic or silver paint -and only late editions (wartime?) has black fronts. AT&SF 33751’s restortion was done in Graphite. In practice it sometimes was applied to the stack.as well as the smokebox door.

An old Santa Fe engineer described it to me as a “silver gray - like a plastic raincoat - not a metalic Silver”.

I found that Scalecoat II ‘Graphite’ was a beautiful match.