Reefer hardware - colours?

[doctorwayne]

Thanks for taking the time to reply, Stix.  You're right about the painted details really "picking-up" the model.  The cars I'm working on are two older Athearns that I had previously painted in a free-lance roadname. One is a steel car, to which I've added some underbody detail, along with wire steps and grabs, while the other is a wood-sided car.  In addition to the metal steps and grabs, and upgraded brake gear, I've fabricated new "wood" ends from scribed styrene, and replaced the roof with a scratchbuilt one.  I'll probably post some pictures in the Model Railroader Forum when the cars are done, although it could be a couple of weeks:  I'm doing a dozen various cars with details, and paint and lettering.

Wayne

[wjstix]

On reefers in general, if the hardware wasn't painted to match the sides (yellow, orange, white etc.) it would be painted black.

BTW painting the hardware black also makes a model look much better IMHO. Athearn came out a few years ago with a really nice run of reefers that were really just their old woodside cars but with very detailed painting, including black hardware. Really made the car look much more detailed than it really was.  

[doctorwayne]

Does anybody here have info on the colour of the hardware (hinges, latches, grabirons, etc.) on Fruit Growers Express reefers, both wood and steel, during the late 1930's?  I have black and white photos which show the hardware as definitely not yellow (like all of the models that I've found) but it's difficult to tell if it should be boxcar red, like the roof, ends, and underbody, or black, as was PFE's practice.  Also, same question for MDT reefers in the white paint scheme.  All the models that I've seen have white hardware, which seems a bit out-of-place for the era, and also a bit impractical for parts that got a lot of wear and tear.  I haven't got a prototype photo of the latter car:  I just don't have too much faith that the kit-makers bother to get everything right.

 Wayne