NYC Empire State Express Hudson

[railroaded]

  Anyone know what color the Scullin Driving Wheels were on the Empire State Express's Streamlined Hudson ?

  Also, What color was the background panal behind the words New York Central on the tender?

-Thanks in advance,

-B in B

[wjstix]

It looks like the panel is stainless steel (silver), I'm not sure if the drivers are silver or not, I think I'd lean more towards their being light gray with white tires.

From madisonrails.railfan.net

[M636C]

  Anyone know what color the Scullin Driving Wheels were on the Empire State Express's Streamlined Hudson ?

  Also, What color was the background panal behind the words New York Central on the tender?

-Thanks in advance,

-B in B

The tender colour is easy: it was unpainted stainless steel. In photos of the train when new, the tender name panel exactly matches the window panels on the RPO and coaches. The cars are well known to be unpainted stainless steel.

The best guess I could make about the wheels is that they were light grey or possibly silver. They don't look as "metallic" as the colour on the wheels of the "Twentieth Century" locomotives, but the lighting was quite different.

M636C

[passengerfan]

Seems to me I read somewhewe that the drivers were painted Aluminum a popular color for prewar imitation stainless steel coloring.

Al - in - Stockton

[wjstix]

Seems to me I read somewhewe that the drivers were painted Aluminum a popular color for prewar imitation stainless steel coloring.

Al - in - Stockton

Aluminum paint for the drivers sounds right. A lot of railroads used that for lettering on steam engines too.

[donbpage]

Dreyfus painted the drivers on several of his streamlined steamers "aluminum." On my model of the 20th Century Limited, I painted them aluminum, but changed to silver, which looks more prototypical. I don't think the tires were painted white, but were aluminum also.

Don