Painting No. 14

[Mountcastle]

I've recently had decals custom designed for the cab and tender of an HO scale engine that I'm using to represent No. 14. The decals replicate the original cab numbers and tender lettering from the 1960s.

Originally, the locomotive and tender were entirely black, except for the cab numbers and the tender lettering (and the number on the rear of the tender, of course).

Does anyone know if any other orange trim was ever applied to No. 14 before they changed the letters and numbers to the current font?

The reason I ask is that, if possible, I'd like to put a little bit of orange on the engine, somewhere, to liven things up a bit, but only if the prototype featured orange trim at some point while it sported the original lettering and numbering.

There's a bit of inconsistency to my approach, as I've included the "R.I. CARTWRIGHT" on the cab, which did not appear until the original font was changed to the current font. But I simply had to have it.

I don't know why I obsess over this nonsense, but if anyone knows the answer, I'd be grateful.

[jgallaway81]

As far as I know, 14 never received trim before the font change, However... the trip that she DID receive was yellow in all records I have.

Bare in mind that my resources are minimal compared to Pat's.

[Mountcastle]

All my memories and photos of 14 show her with either reddish orange or yellow trim, but that's all post-1976, long after the original font was replaced by the current. There's a lengthy thread on this forum upon which Pat and others give a very detailed and comprehensive presentation of 14's various paint jobs through the years.

I didn't think that 14 ever had any sort of trim accompanying the original font, but then I noticed a photo in the Ed Lewis book--the photo of the 14/18 double-header--that seems to show trim painted on the running boards along the boiler. I wondered if it might just be sunlight reflected, but it doesn't really look to be. It looks as though it's painted.

Of course, we're talking about a black and white photograph, here, so even if it is painted, I wonder in what color. I would assume a yellowish orange that matches the lettering, but it might just as well be white or yellow.

[BSOR Patarak]

The trim painting on both engines probably occurred because of an ICC inspection. I'm sure it had to deal with visibility and the steps/handholds needing to be of contrasting color. It probably was applied to the handrail along the boiler and edge of the running boards. Now, as for when? Hmm...

I have one shot taken in 1966 or after that has the 'circus' style lettering on 14's tender, the gon (still in USAF paint, which arrived in 1966) and white wall tires, orange windows on the cab, orange letters and numbers and the edge of the walkway running boards (from under the cab to the smoke box) in white. Non of the hand holds, cut levers or steps have any color, all black. I personally like that minimalistic paint job. Mostly black is what these engines would have looked like in freight service. Just plain simple, sometimes dirty work horses. Of course for the "tourists" shiny is better.

Pat

[Mountcastle]

Question at long last answered, definitively.

I just watched on YouTube a home video recorded in 1971 of No. 14 in operation. It shows her still painted with the original font, yet with orange trim painted on the grab irons and along the footboards:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cRZrDRjwgoU

This would have been about four or five years before my first ride on the A&A. By then, the old lettering had been painted over, and was replaced with the current, off-centered lettering that appears on the tender to this day.

At that time, too, as the video shows, the gondola was painted orange (with black on the front and rear), and that was so for many years after. The gondola was also located behind the tender rather than at the rear of the train. Now that it's been refitted, I wonder where they'll put the gondola this time around.