Were the insides of coal cars painted?

[Jeff Young]

I known the D&RGW didn't paint the insides of their gondolas, but the banner picture on the forum makes it look like the C&S did.  Anyone know more?

Thanks,
Jeff.

[Doug Heitkamp]

If they were painted, they didn't stay that way long. I don't believe they were.

[Jeff Young]

Thanks for those pictures, Doug.  

While it's somewhat hard to distinguish painted from weathered wood, the last picture shows a metal plate down the inside front corner which pretty clearly has some boxcar red on it.  

But it does look like I should weather off the great majority of the paint.  (The Micro-Trains cars also aren't lettered quite correctly, so they need a bit of remedial work anyway.  And I somehow ended up with two with the same road number, so that one needs more serious modification.)

[Jim Courtney]

Jeff,

It is unclear whether the inside corner irons were ever painted.

I have finished the inside of my gons in the past with weathered wood and painted the inside angle irons rust.

Some cars appear to have a dark interior due to coal dust from previous loads.

My 2 cents worth.

[Jeff Young]

Hmmm... yes, I suppose that could be rust colour, rather than box-car red.

I'll have to play around with it a bit.  I'm reasonably proficient at weathering actual wood, but haven't yet tried making plastic look like weathered wood.

[Mike Trent]

If there was time, and paint wasn't at a premium, they would have used a red paint to inhibit rust, as the years passed it would be necessary to remove and replace boards, and unpainted iron would make it real hard to remove bolts. So a rusty red with a good layer of coal dust should hit it spot on.

Remember there was a board across one end to allow the brakeman a place to stand while working the wheel. That accounts for the rather deliberate dark appearance in some of the photos.

 

[Jeff Young]

Yeah, the Micro Trains cars do have the brakeman’s board.

That gives me an idea, though: I could cut that out and replace it with real wood since it would both be the most weathered, and the most visible.

Cheers,
Jeff.

[Doug Heitkamp]

Jeff,

It took me a while to find this picture in my jumble of files. This the the inside of the C&S Coal Car in Central City. Ignore the plywood, but the weathering on the end boards is impressive. Also note the brackets to support the board over the end of the car. They are never included in kits or R-T-R cars.

[Doug Heitkamp]

Here's an enlargement of one of the pics above. It show the brackets on a couple of cars.

[Jeff Young]

Thanks for those pictures, Doug.

The Central City coal car is certainly interesting.  There are traces of old paint on the edge of the brakeman’s board (and on the end of the support bracket), but there doesn’t appear to be any on the inside wall of the car.

In particular, if they had been painted you would expect to find some traces on the wood behind the round holes in the brakeman’s board support brackets (where the wood would have been protected from abrasion).

Cheers,
Jeff.

[Keith Hayes]

Jeff, I would always be wary of post-service images. We have no idea what we'll meaning folks may have done to help preserve the car in the interim. Case in point, the story that a Burlington crew circulated through towns applying the then current paint scheme. I am not saying they did so, but they may have painted the car interiors along with everything else.

I think it is safe to say that every car in the C&TS collection has been painted at least once and possibly three or four times since purchase  by the states occurred.

Just saying.