NYC H16-44: Black or gray?

Greetings -

I'm looking at the Atlas H16-44 road switchers and was wondering how accurate the dark-ish gray paint on the shell is compared to what was on the prototype?



The Atlas 2003 releases are listed as black. The 2014 release is what is pictured above. All the b&w pics I've seen on Fallen Flags (one dated '52) show what appear to be a weathered or oxidized black. Is this what Atlas was possibly trying to achieve?

I appreciate the input, fellas - Thanks!

Tom

All of the color photos of H16-44s in my collection are black.
There is a color photo on George Elwood's Fallen Flags website.
http://www.rr-fallenflags.org/nyc/nyc7010ggC.jpg

tstage wrote:All the b&w pics I've seen on Fallen Flags (one dated '52) show what appear to be a weathered or oxidized black. Is this what Atlas was possibly trying to achieve?

Probably not..
I have never heard of a manufacturer purposely painting a model in "weathered" or faded paint..
they are always painted in "new" paint..
then the modeler gets to choose if they want to weather it or not..

it's far more likely they just painted it wrong..

Scot

Try checking the attached photo. Two FM's, on very obviously black body with lightning stripes, the other rather grey. If you want the source, go to :Fairbanks Locomotives in Color" by Jim Boyd.

Dave Mackay

mackdave wrote:Try checking the attached photo. Two FM's, on very obviously black body with lightning stripes, the other rather grey.

So you are saying two consecutive locos received different color body paint from the builder? I don't buy that - I'd ascribe the difference to weathering, and maybe how long since the respective units had been given a bath.

I didn't say Fairbanks Morse painted them that way. The photo is from 1957, the locomotives were built in 1951. Paints back then didn't hold up that well, and re-paints were common after 4-5 years. NYC painted a lot of switchers, freight Geeps and RS's two tone grey in the 1955-56 period. No reason one of the H-16-44's didn't get the same treatment.

Dave Mackay

Alvin Stauffer's "New York Central Later Power" has a number of (b&w) photos from, apparently, early in the units' careers (the two that are dated are from 1952). They LOOK black, though it's hard to be sure in old b&w photos. (To illustrate the problems, one of the photos, if you look at the lower part of the hood, could pass for gray, but this is just weathering: the upper part of the hood is black.)

Has anyone seen the actual 2014 model? It could be the picture posted is just an undec engine someone at Atlas painted and lettered to get a picture to post on their website / catalog. They maybe got the color wrong on it, or due to lighting it looks dark gray rather than black, but it could the production run models are correctly painted black. If you read the fine print when manufacturers announce a new product or roadname the fine print will say something like "pre-production model, actual model may vary".

I have the model. It is gray.

Dave Mackay