Colour of MDT reefers?

[doctorwayne]

Does anybody have information about the colour of MDT (NYC) refrigerator cars?  One source says yellow sides, with black lettering and boxcar red roof and ends, while another says orange sides, with black lettering and boxcar red roof and ends.  Also, when was the scheme with the white carsides introduced?  I'm modelling the mid-thirties, by the way. 

Wayne

[wjstix]

Might depend on the type of car?? Northern Pacific for example had yellow woodsided reefers, when the all-steel ones came in, they painted them with orange sides.

[doctorwayne]

The lettering diagrams that I have all show wood-sided cars.  C-D-S shows the car as having yellow sides, while Champ says the sides were orange.  They also show a diagram for a wooden car with white sides.  I have an Intermountain car in the white scheme, but it's a steel-sided car.  I just went to check the C-D-S diagram, as they usually specify the time when a particular scheme was known to be in use.  The notation says 1941.  I also check the info sheet in the Champ decal set, which calls the orange scheme the most common one, although no time period is given.  Interestingly, though, I also just noticed that the label on the Champ envelope says that set HR-110 is for white and yellow cars.  A little learning may be a dangerous thing, but a little more is just downright confusing!  Thanks anyway, wjstix, for the attempt.

Wayne

[daveklepper]

For what it is worth, I think I remember seeing steel-sided MDT refers painted white, and I think they were New York Central.   This is a memory that goes back some 65 years so it might be wise to check it out.   As a child in Grade School, we visited the Borden Milk bottling plant, in Manhattan, whcih was served by a New York Central siding, I think off the West Side Line, and MDT NYC refers brought in the milk from the farmers.

[DSchmitt]

In   THE GREAT YELLOW FLEET by John H. White a photo caption on a car with a NEW date of 4-41   "For a time Merchants Dispatch forsook its red, white and blue color scheme for the more conventional, yellow, red and black livery."

Where color is mentioned in captions on photos of earlier cars (built  1899 and 1922)  the side color is white.

The colors on a 1947 photo "livery was white sides, red roof and ends, black underframe, and red and blue stripes." 

Color photos in another book, from the 1960's and latter show orange cars.

 

 

[doctorwayne]

Thanks for the information, which really sheds new light on the subject for me.  I'd always been under the impression that the white scheme was the newest version, perhaps from the mid-fifties on.  It seems like either the white or yellow scheme would be appropriate for my late 1930's modelling era, but not the orange.  I'm glad I asked before painting the car, as it would've ended up orange otherwise.

Wayne

[Anonymous]

Wayne, a Mantua HO reefer that I bought before 1949 was lettered NYC MDT and had white sides.  The sides were cardboard and were glued to the assembled metal car but I don't remember if it was embossed as a steel or wood car. It's stored in a box with all the other rolling stock so it's not easy to get to. 

Have you posted on the model forums or are you just double checking with the older heads on this forum?

Art

[doctorwayne]

Thanks, Art.  I posted the question here because I was looking for an answer as it applies directly to the prototype.  As I mentioned, the lettering information that I have is all model-based and is conflicting.  I thought that there was a chance that asking in the model forums would result in more info based on (possibly) incorrect models or incorrect lettering sets.  Besides that, my head is an older one too!

Wayne 

[Anonymous]

You have to be carefull with model-based colors.