Does anyone know of a list of all the cars that UP had painted in Grey? Looking for Lightweight and heavyweight cars.
Not exactly an answer, but a list might be quite long. As part of a modernization program, UP began using the 2 tone grey scheme on secondary mainline passenger trains, i.e. non-City trains. The only City train in grey was the City of St. Louis.
Secondary trains in this case includes the Overland Limited, Los Angeles Limited, etc., however a number of cars in the general passenger pool were also painted grey. It’s my impression that some divisions, notably in the Pac NW and Kansas went even farther and re-painted equipment used in local service, including baggage, combines, and RPO cars as well as 4-6-2 Pacific steam locos.
As best as I know, the UP (and the SP) operated all of their passenger equipment in two tone grey schemes — until —
on the UP the diesels came along and then, with the City trains, started the Armour Yellow -Red-Grey we have today.
on the SP with the beginning of the Daylight trains. When the Bloody Nose grey and red scheme was instituted, the passenger cars were painted single tone grey with a red stripe above the windows.
The SP cars were painted silver,not gray,with a red letterboard stripe.Before this,SP used two tone gray on the Overland Limited and Lark trains and possibly others.
What I am looking for are the 2 tone grey, with a white stipe separating thme. They are the Overland ones. The reason I am asking for a list is I bought some of the HO scale Rivarossi ones, and now I have 3 of the American Forum, 2 American Buffalo, and 2 Nob Hill. now, I am wondering, that way I can change names and numbers, so I have individual cars.
Here are the ones: Ebay
Miniwyo,
I checked Dubin’s Pullman Paint book
The bad news is that it illustrates “American Forum” as the example of an Overland car.
The good news is that “American Lake” was the first car painted for the Overland.
Other “American” sleeper names used by UP include “Consulate”, “General” and “View” but these might not ever have been grey.
The really bad news is that “Nob Hill” was the name of the observation car on the 1937 City of San Francisco (and was of course always yellow (and initially brown rather than grey)).
Best I can do right now!
M636C
Just to clarify, UP started using the yellow-red-grey scheme on everything after they received a large number of E units and dieselized all passenger trains in 1954-55. The 2-tone grey scheme was used from about 1946 until 1955, but likely first appeared on the Overland Limited. Prior to that UP passenger cars were Pullman green. Keep in mind the transitions didn’t always happen to all equipment on the official date in the memo.
The 1930’s diesel powered City trains were yellow and brown with gold leaf or red lettering. The yellow-red-grey scheme first appeared on the 1941 version of the City of L.A. (LA 4-5-6) and City of S.F. (SF 4-5-6). As older City trains were refurbished and re-assigned, they received the new scheme.
Well, thats good to know, I will probably still use the names weather they were grey or not. Not too worried about the Nob Hill though, the one I have is FUBAR, so it will take some work to get it running again. Got the new one on UPS this morning. [:P] and All I need ot do with the others is change the names on it and it will be just fine.
There was another book, “A Century of Pullman Cars, Volume 1 Alphabetical List” which I realised would help. It shows date of building and type of car as well as the name. All the “American” cars were built in 1942, except for those I listed which dated from 1949. All the 1942 cars were listed as “Joint” (for the Overland service) and these were all painted two tone grey as built (although they would be lettered “Pullman” rather than “Overland” before 1946 when the lettering was introduced).
Some more names you might like are (prefixed by “American”)
Beauty, Canyon,Clipper, Eagle, Indian, Liberty, Patrol, Star, Sunset
As far as I know, Rivarrossi only made a duplex sleeper and a 10+6. Was “Nob Hill” a 10+6?
I have a set of cars in grey, but they are a mixed set of heavyweight and lightweight. I have a 10+6 lettered “Pullman” and two streamlined coaches, but a heavyweight diner and observation. The loco is a 4-8-4, with grey with yellow stripes.
M636C
You have pretty much the same thing I do then. The 10+6 Sleepers are “American Buffalo”, and the “Nob Hill” is an observation. I also have that 4-8-4 northern and boy is it a lugger! Do you know if that book you just mentioned is still in print?
The book I have was printed in 1987
The author is Ralph L Barger
The Publisher is Greenberg Publishing Company of Sykesville Maryland.
I know for sure that there was a second printing. One of the photos was printed in reverse (a car in work train service) and this was corrected in the second printing. But that may have been ten years ago. At least one other volume also appeared, but I didn’t get one.
The book is very useful, and the notes say the author was an HO Modeller, so it includes a number of photos of the prototypes of the Rivarossi cars including the (PRR) duplex cars. I have two of those in SP colours, and I always assumed these were a fake repaint - in fact SP got two very similar cars from the 1937 City trains, and even the road number was correct! So the book is quite useful.
M636C
Do you have an ISBN # for the book?
ISBN 0-89778-061-2
M636C