Re: Caboose roof color

Posted by Mike Trent on Jan 10, 2015; 3:56pm
URL: http://c-sng-discussion-forum.254.s1.nabble.com/Caboose-roof-color-tp61p133.html

Interesting question, because just about any opinion is correct.

My belief on the color of the caboose roofs is that there was absolutely no effort made by the C&S to distinguish the roof color any differently when they were painted in the shop. They were painted in exactly the way a boxcar would have been painted. (including the FRA requirement that walkways not be painted)

However, over time, as the roofs were covered with tarred roofing material, it is easy to imagine (and even see in photos) that dirt, soot and even tar itself would have bled through the paint causing them to appear as a darker and different color, even on the edges.

So my answer to this question would be an unequivical "Red", because that's how the C&S regarded them. But in reality, because they clearly can appear darker, whatever appeals to your eye is fine.

Bear in mind that on the C&S the roof color of passenger equipment was also the same as the body color, so there is consistency in this.

Having said all that, there is at least one exception to this. Tim Schreiner found a photograph on ebay last summer and sent me a copy which was quite interesting. It shows #1003 at Idaho Springs, I believe in 1939. The undercarriage is painted black (not red), and the roof is for sure either unpainted dark roofing material, or was indeed painted black. But this was 1939, and is almost certainly the only one painted like that. I do not believe #1009, which was in service till 1943 out of Leadville, was ever painted in that manner. But it probably also never was in the Denver Shops after '37.

I have three OMI cabooses, all of them are painted in Floquil Zinc Chromate Primer, all red. A little weathering later, perhaps? Maybe.....