LV Gondola Paint Schemes... when?

[umtrr-author]

Looking for a "roughly right" answer to a question on Lehigh Valley's gondola paint schemes, specifically some sense of timelines.

Micro-Trains has among their October 2009 releases a pair of gondolas done for the LV in tuscan red with white lettering including large roadname split by the black and white diamond herald. The two road numbers done correspond to the series of 500 cars numbered 32850 to 33349 built in 1950 by Bethlehem Steel, or so says the Morning Sun Color Guide to the CNJ/LV. That book has a 1979 photo of the 33185 in the same paint scheme, and on the Fallen Flags site there's another 1979 photo of LV 33452, one of the numbers that Micro-Trains released.

The paint scheme that MTL depicts is not how the cars were delivered; that would have been black with white lettering and smaller roadname.

So my question is: approximately when did the LV start repainting gondolas into the scheme with the large roadname? Or should I say, schemes: LV gondolas were also green, gray, and oxide red in addition to tuscan or "boxcar" red.

I'm not looking for an exact date (though it would certainly be appreciated!), just something to start the Approximate Time Period that I try to include in my Micro-Trains reviews.

Thanks for any help!

[scottychaos]

George,
I also took a look through that Morningsun book..
based on all the photos, I would place the date around 1970 for those schemes..

maybe 1968 at the earliest..
for a date range for those repaints, if you say 1969-1976 I bet you will have it 95% right.

Scot

[umtrr-author]

Thanks, Scot. That's about what I was thinking. I can peg the end of the Approximate Time Period with my stash of Equipment Registers, but the repaint dates are usually a challenge.

[GOLDEN-ARM]

repaints aren't usually done, just as "something to do". they normally took/take place,when the cars or equipment, is shopped. with gons, new floors and doors, are the main reason to shop, and repainting would correspond with such works. if they did them in batches, it might be easier to find batch numbers & dates. if they were done, as cars were pulled from service, do to being unfit/unsafe for service, you might not ever find those, unless some shop records could be located.

i have a pretty decent slide collection of LV freight cars, but none are close enough, to see the rebuild dates, and/or repaint dates. as with locos, if you can find the last know pic of one scheme, and the first known of the next, you can guestimate the time, when it happened.

[umtrr-author]

Right, and that's what makes it so hard to pin down. And the less financially well off a line is, the longer the previous paint scheme lasts (excepting ideas like the sale/recondition/leaseback that LV did with United States Railroad Equipment).

As you suggest, If I get a sense of when any given LV gondola could have been painted up in the scheme, that's close enough.

I would not be surprised to see every LV gondola paint scheme co-existing at some point in time.

[CAR_FLOATER]

[quote="umtrr-author"]

I would not be surprised to see [b]every[/b] LV gondola paint scheme co-existing at some point in time.[/quote]

Well, not EVERY scheme. I doubut a scheme from 1909 co-existed with one from 1969.
CF

[umtrr-author]

True... too broad a statement.

Let's add "from the same series of cars," for example the 50 foot drop end cars that Micro-Trains released in Z Scale this month.