Guilford Paint Phases

How many paint phases did Guilford have in the Grey and Orange? I found at least 4
My favorite phase - note the solid orange on the bottom. (I always liked the railroad name spelt out next to the big G and the "numbers only" under the cab.)
Two phases in this picture - note the orange and white stripes and the missing orange band at the rare of the first engine.
My least favorite phase - I was never a big fan of the Guilford Rail System and the railroad reporting marks under the cab.

i think that's about right. The Oneonta shops always did things differently than waterville. The grey was more grey than it was black and they had the silly stripes on the long hood wrap all the way around.

I personally liked the phase with the pilot stripes and the road name on the long hood.

I actually asked this question a few months ago.
According to roster expert Bill Gingrich, there are just three GRS gray schemes.
Ph.1 Solid gray body, frame, trucks and fuel tank with a broken orange stripe around the locomotive. The "Big G" logo on both sides, And the road name spelled out on the Hood sides. A large number below the window on the cab. Orange/white striped pilot.

Ph.2 Same as Ph.1 except the pilot was solid orange.

Ph.3 Same as Ph.2 except the road name was on the hood was replaced by "Guilford Rail System" and the large number under the cab window became a small number and reporting marks. Post 2001 repaints got an American Flag on the cab.

FRA mandated frame striping has been applied to all active locomotives (Ph.3 and 2) no examples of Ph.1 still exist all locomotives have solid orange pilots/plows. I beleive only 2-3 examples of Ph.2 still exist. #334 and 621 come to mind.

As Newpylong pointed out, there were several variations on the same theme. For example, The SD26's had the G and the road name reversed on the engineer's side-the "G" was close to the cab and the "ST" was under the DB blister. This was corrected when the locomotives came in for a second paint job. Also, Oneonta seemed to always get the short end of the stick. Their paint was always lighter than at Waterville, and the quality of the job was never quite up to par with a job done at Waterville, this was do to a mass of locomotives to paint and a lack of time/material not poor workmanship.

Edit*
Just looked at your pictures again. The first one (BM 200) is in GRS Ph.2 paint. The BM GP38-2's were different in that most of the fleet had white number boards with black numbers (still true today) THe second picture there is only one paint phase, all three locomotives are in Ph.1 paint. The stripe does not wrap all the way around on the lead unit and while it is a little odd, if you look at other locomotives in any gray you will notice that the stripe does not real come up far on the engineer's side. And the last one MEC 317 is indeed in Ph.3, notice the FRA required striping on the frame, but the locomotive was last painted before 2001 as there is no flag.

Edit #2*
Found the thread I started a while back-
http://www.railroad.net/forums/viewtopi ... 55&t=62037

Hope that helps

When Guilford painted a locomotive, was the stripe put on after the gray? I would have thought that the the locomotive got a coat of gray, then the orange stripe. But, I have seen several photos, most notably of 690, where the paint has aged and the orange seems to be "expanding." Did they apply the orange and then the gray?

For example http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPi ... id=1487279 (Nells Choo Photo)
or http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPi ... ?id=309367 (MEC407 photo)

I've noticed that too. From the look of it, they sprayed on a big wide swath of orange, and then masked the stripe and sprayed the gray everywhere else. Perhaps that's easier than painting the gray first and then having to mask it off to paint the orange stripe.

Ah, that would work, I don't really see them painting a locomotive orange and then gray, just think how much that would cost...

Absolutely, its easier to paint a dark color over a lighter one than it is the other way around, the adhesive white lettering is also applied over the lighter color and after the top color is sprayed on, and dries, the protective layer is peeled off the lettering to finish off the job. If you look at any RR's older power that hasn't been re-painted in a good long time, you'll see the lighter color bleeding through, the B&M's maroon GP-7's were prime examples of this.

Thanks for conformation David!

I know what you mean, I have seen photos of B&M GP7's that are almost all a very faded gold color. They really needed to visit the paintbooth!

Were there any engines lettered for Portland Terminal?

When do you mean?
Orginally PT was an operating subsidiary of Maine Central. It operated a fleet of Alcos and served the industrial tracks of Portland as well as switching Rigby.

Since Guilford took over the B&M in 1983 no "new" locomotive has been lettered for PT. From looking at Bill Gingrich's roster, most PT locomotives were retired by 1984 and all were retired by 1988. With the exception of one GP-7 that was renumbered for MEC 1957 the entire PT roster was Alco.

A light track crane was lettered for PT for the longest time, however, it has since been reletterd to ST #40209 (??? not quite sure on that number) but the tender, an old wooden gondola, is still painted green with PT marks.

Yes, I'm aware Portland Terminal was a subsidiary of Maine Central (Boston and Maine too). I was just curious to know if any engine in Guilford, gray and orange got Portland Terminal lettering. Springfield Terminal was a subsidiary of the Boston and Maine and was smaller than Portland Terminal.

Nope, no locos in Guilford paint were ever lettered for PT. That would have been cool, though. If I ever have enough space and money for a model railroad, I'll probably paint a couple of PT locos in Guilford colors just for the what-if factor.

ST was smaller but had labor rules that were much more favorable to management, hence the leasing of B&M and MEC to ST and subsequent locomotive ownership transfers.

MEC407 wrote:If I ever have enough space and money for a model railroad, I'll probably paint a couple of PT locos in Guilford colors just for the what-if factor.

I was thinking of the same thing!

The old Guilford paint scheme won't win any awards for beauty, but this photo of MEC 378 by Mr. Kevin Andrusia is proof that any paint scheme can look nice, if the lighting is just right:

http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=320302

Guilford does still use PTM reporting marks. Some MOW and Wreck Train equipment is letters for PTM.