Passenger Car Roof Colors

[NW Modeling List]

Eric,

I have a copy of N&W Railway Co. Specification No. 232-0, dated January 10,
1947, titled "Specification for Painting Steel Passenger Equipment Cars;"
regarding the roof, it indicates:

"The roof is be cleaned the same as rest of car and primed with Zinc
Chromate Primer. After priming is dry, apply three (3) coats of Flood &
Conklin's Elastic Roof Composition, used straight as it comes for the
barrel, without any thinning. Allow not less than forty-eight hours between
coats for drying. All ventilators and hoods on roof to receive one heavy
coat of Car Cement after all other coats applied"

Also, a letter dated May 4, 1954 from C. E. Pond, General Superintendent of
Motive Power, to B. Cook, Superintendent of Shops, references an earlier
letter by Pond to Cook dated April 23 (I don't have that), says:

"...at that time you were instruct4ed to apply Mortex No. 4 or Dednox to
the roofs of passenger cars at such time as they required repainting. The
present paint should be completely removed, but no primer should be applied
prior to the application of the Mortex or Dednox."

A quick google search on Flood & Conklin brings up a mid-1960's Supreme
Court decision, but I could not find anything else about the business; a
google search on Elastic Roof Composition produced result that if I
interpret correctly, suggest the product used per the 1947 paint specs was
a tar like substance; of course, I don't know what color it was; even if it
was brown, it would have darkened fairly quickly on roofs of passenger
equipment pulled by steam power.

Regarding the use of "car cement," all references I have seen to it as
applied to steam era freight cars indicate is was black in color.

By 1954, it is obvious Mortex or Dednox is the standard roof application,
but no longer to applied over a primer.

Depending on what era you model you could certainly have a mix of brown and
black roofed passenger equipment; of course, as you get into the late 1950s
and early 60s, most would probably be black.  I have always used a roof
brown color with a drop or two of grimey black added.

Hope this helps.

Jim Brewer
Glenwood MD

On Tue, Jun 12, 2018 at 1:09 PM, NW Modeling List <nw-modeling-list at nwhs.org
> wrote:

> Is there any rhyme or reason to N&W passenger roof paint colors?  How
> would I decide whether to paint one brown (or whatever the non-black color
> was) vs black on any given model during the Tuscan side color era?
>
> And what Scalecoat paint (or mix) best represents that brown (or whatever
> it was)?
>
> Thank you!
>
> -Eric Bott
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: NW-Modeling-List [mailto:nw-modeling-list-bounces at nwhs.org] On
> Behalf Of NW Modeling List
> Sent: Tuesday, June 12, 2018 09:13
> To: NW Modeling List <nw-modeling-list at nwhs.org>
> Subject: EXTERNAL: Re: HO Herald King Hopper Decals
>
> That sounds like good advice, Todd. I'd very much like to see your photos.
>
> It sounds like Herald King has me taken care of as far as the decals are
> concerned for now, but I really like this scheme and I may choose to do
> more later.
>
> Safe travels, Todd!
>
> Ryan Harris
> Fort Worth, Texas
>
>
> On 6/11/2018 9:47 PM, NW Modeling List wrote:
> > Ryan,
> >
> > I believe that I have a couple extra sets of the Claytor scheme decal
> > sets that I can part with. I'm in Arizona for the balance of the week
> > and will check when I arrive home. Just remind me in a week or so by
> > sending an email to arnett at nwhs.org
> >
> > As for placing the proper decals in the proper place, I submit what a
> > friend of mine that works for NS  a few years back: "Nothing is
> > consistent on the railroad despite what a drawing states".
> > Nonetheless,  I would be more that happy to send you photos of my
> > Bowser H11X series hoppers that I lettered in this scheme.
> >
> > Until then, happy modeling.
> >
> > Todd Arnett
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