Were the cab roofs Dk.Red?I would like to do my 4-6-2 in Great Northern colors.
I take it you are doing the Glacier Park Scheme.
For the boiler you will want Floquil GN Green.
For the Cab Roof, You will want a color called Vermillion Red.
Smokebox is Graphite.
Tender is black.
James
What great colours for a locomotive, One question, was there a specific reason the roof cabs were painted red?? and were all steamers painted,even switchers?
Two suggested reasons are that the red was either to:
- hide the rust that would form on the roof, or
- was actually primer, as railroads did not paint the roofs of cabs since they were hidden from view.
At one tine, just about ALL GN steam engine were painted in the ‘Glacier Park’ scheme. The ‘red’ cab roof was quite common on steam engines. Many times the cab roof as canvas streached over wood/metal frame. It painted with an ‘oxide’ based paint to penetrate deep into the material and ‘weatherproof’ it. Even later with all steel cab roofs, there was a trend to paint the cab roof with a red/lead paint. Note that the PRR and Southern railroads also painter cab roofs and the tender decks with this oxide color. The GN Historical group can provide more information. Be aware that the green used is ‘Glacier Park’ green, not ‘Glacier’ green. The Glacier green was used on GN freight equipment in the early 60’s and is sort of a NYC ‘Jade’ green(maybe a little lighter). Glacier Park green is quite dark(but not as dark as Pullman green). The jacketing on the boiler and the cylinders was painted green, and the domes, underframe, etc were black. A real good exercise in masking!
Jim
When I was custom painting I wrote the GN (pre-BN) public relations people and got a nice note back to the effect that there was no “official” boiler jacket color but each local shop chose from a list of different makers’ paints (depending on local availability)
Scalecoat Glacier green is a good MRR choice for the jackets and their oxide red works for the cab roof.
The green used by the Great Northern Railway was officially known as “Boiler
Jacket Green” The closest commecially available paint is Scalecoat #25
GN Green. The cab roofs are NOT painted ‘Vemillion Red’ as mentioned,
but one of several variations of mineral or oxide red. Often, the cab roofs
were left black… Vermillion was the red color used by the GN on post-1958
cabooses and freight cars. Smokebox colors can be graphite, as mentioned,
but a ‘Smokebox Gray’ was also common. This color lacked much of the metallic
appearance of true Graphite and was much lighter. Some passenger locomotives
received a mixture of bright silver and white on the smokebox and, in addition,
the cylinder head covers were chromed or nickel plated (again passenger locos
only). http://www.gngoat.org/gn2555.jpg This link will show an excellent view
of a freshly shopped GN S-1 4-8-4 in Glacier Park colors. Hope this helps.
