truck side frame colors?

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S

stang_crazy

Member
Got a question about the color of some of the side frames, yeah some come black, but others come silver.

Is it actually silver or aluminum? I have some i need to paint and wasnt quite sure what color they are or would either one work.
 
TMLW said:
Depends on the railroad. What railroad are you painting?
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various railroad. what im doing is im putting a bunch of athearn engines back together and some of the side truck frames where junk so i had to put new ones on and they are black, instead of the silver/alum color?

this is basically to get em back to factory look
 


wheeler1963 said:
KodaChromes are silver, UP are Harbor mist gray
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Depends on the era. If they are really original, pre-merger UP, then the trucks will be silver. Harbor mist gray is correct for post merger engines. Stang, that's why it's hard to give an answer unless you specify exactly what engines you have and what paint scheme is used. For example, a UP F unit would always have silver trucks because they were all pre-merger. A UP SD-40 might or might not have silver trucks depending on the paint scheme, since they lasted until long after the merger. Floquil Old Silver is the right color for UP trucks unless you want one right out of the paint shop, then it would be bright silver.
 
UP would be silver as posted. For a SPSF, after looking at a few prototype photos, probably silver if its new or aluminum if they are going to be weathered.
 
SPSF were silver, in most cases. I think, if I'm remembering correct, one or two units ended up with black trucks.
 
SP Koda Chrome SW1500, silver sideframes, weather as needed.

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UP SW1500, Habor mist gray, weather as necessary.

61551159160400.jpg


UP SD40-2 back in 1982 with silver sideframes.

62121046628960.jpg
 


OK as far as UP goes, was there a time period they switched from silver to gray or vice versa?

Or do they just use a certain color on certain engines?
 
Stang, you're not paying attention. ALL UP engines had silver trucks in the pre-merger era. The merger occured in 1995. As UP and SP units were repainted, they all got the new UP scheme with the gray trucks. I would guess that the last pure UP scheme engines were repainted by 2000 and got gray trucks. There were no special UP engines with silver trucks. They all had them up to and within a few years after the merger. The only SP engines with silver trucks were the few painted in the ill-fated Kodachrome SP-ATSF planned merger. There were only 96 engines repainted in the years 1985-1986, before the ICC denied the merger. Many of these survived until they were finally repainted in the UP scheme, some as late as 2002.
 
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I was going to double check Don Strack's UP website, seems he only has a start date:
When did UP begin using aluminum paint of its locomotive trucks?

A: UP E9 943 was the first new unit with aluminum trucks. (Terry Kolenc, May 11, 2000)

A: UP 943 was new in May 1954, so that sounds about right (I'm embarrassed to say that the E units never occurred to me). With the propane turbine getting aluminum trucks in late May 1953, some of the other turbines getting them by mid 1955, and the GP9s getting them in 1957, the E9s getting them in 1954 makes a lot of sense. The GP9s of 1954 were delivered up to 248, in May 1954. UP 250-299 were delivered in August to September 1954, but they were freight units. Maybe the passenger units and turbines got aluminum trucks first because of their high visibility to the public. Look on page 199 of my 1934-1982 book. It shows UP E9B 945B new, with gray trucks, in April 1953. Page 186 has UP E9A 940 new in May 1953 with gray trucks. I'm guessing that in the collection in Omaha, there is likely a photo of the 943-947 group new, maybe with aluminum trucks. (Don Strack, May 11, 2000)
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However, don't fully believe everything posted... (this is off topic, but proving some info is incorrect).
Does anyone know why UP has 2 different front window types on their SD60Ms? Some versions have the 2 piece North American style while others have the 3 piece Canadian style. Is there a reason UP has done this? (Spence Watson, September 14, 2000)

A: When we did the first SD60M's, we still had 3 and sometimes 4 man crews, as did the Canadians, where the 3-piece windshield (and sometimes a 4-piece windshield) was common. The reason was that with a 4-man crew and with everyone on the head end, the guy sitting in the middle seat can see ahead with the 3-piece windshield. With a two-piece design, he's staring at the center post. After the first couple of orders, we got new crew consist agreements that reduced the number of crew personnel to 2 or 3. With that, the center seat is usually unoccupied. No worry about the guy in the center seat being unable to see ahead. That was part of the reason for the change. The SD90MACII has a two-piece windshield that uses the same glass as the GE's. This does not apply to any SD60M's. (Steve Lee, September 15, 2000)
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They might be somewhat correct in the development reasoning behind the 3 window cab, however they did not have an "option" between the two, it was EMD's call when they decided to switch to the newer two window style.

Also, the SD90MAC-H-II (along with current SD70ACe/SD70M-2) DOES NOT use the same window glass part as GE. The ONLY reason they started using square glass is because its cheaper to make then the multi-angle glass.
 
Slight correction - 1984 was the start of painting merger power with gray trucks. The original UP power still had silver trucks. It was common to see UP trains with both silver and gray trucked engines until the mid 90's, when the older power took a trip to the paint shop. It's also misleading to use delivery pictures as the final color scheme. The UP commonly took delivery of locomotives with just the yellow and gray body paint. The Omaha shops added the striping, lettering, anti-glare panels, and painted the trucks silver. With all this confusion, it's really important you have a prototype photo and know the year of the photo if reproducing an accurate model is important.
 
UP2CSX said:
Slight correction - 1984 was the start of painting merger power with gray trucks. The original UP power still had silver trucks. It was common to see UP trains with both silver and gray trucked engines until the mid 90's, when the older power took a trip to the paint shop. It's also misleading to use delivery pictures as the final color scheme. The UP commonly took delivery of locomotives with just the yellow and gray body paint. The Omaha shops added the striping, lettering, anti-glare panels, and painted the trucks silver. With all this confusion, it's really important you have a prototype photo and know the year of the photo if reproducing an accurate model is important.
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Jim brings up a VERY valid point. As with my original long post, never trust written information as "gods word" there's always going to be TONS of exceptions. For example, SF Kodachromes with BNSF patches...:cool:
 
Well id like to model the stuff as it looks today. But some of itll be what it looked like back in the day then.

But thanks for all the help guys.
 
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