From prototype photos, it appears that the grills on the sides of F7s were bare stainless. Then again, some appear to have been painted the same color as the car body. Did the engine start life with bare stainless and then get painted over at some point in time, or were some painted right from day one? I have some models with very nicely detailed and colored “stainless”, and many others painted the body color. From a freelanced road standpoint, should I care? What was the general practice?
Depends on the railroad and what they wanted. EMD will paint them or leave them ‘bare’ per customer preference…
Jim
The Farr-Air grilles were manufactured from stainless-steel. I have taken them on and off more times than I can count. I can’t recall any railways that had their paint scheme applied to them at the factory, but some chose to paint them later. More than not they remained stainless, because paint doesn’t adhere very well to stainless.
RWM
Thanks, guys.
I kind of figured it would be as you described but I wasn’t totally sure. Maybe I’ll leave the ones with the good detail “as received” from EMD - bare stainless, and the ones with not so good detail as “repaints.” Thanx again.
I’ve seen a pic of an ATSF freight F7 without it’s stainless steel grills. Story is Santa Fe removed grills on several Freight Fs and put them on passenger chicken wire F3s.
Here it is, ATSF 260C.