I have never been able to support the notion that the Central had any smooth-sided silver colored cars; all silver cars were Budds. am I wrong?
I'll bet Ed (gmpullman) can give you a pretty good answer. I'm not personally aware of any smooth-side NYC cars that were a silver color, but could be wrong. I do know some NYC Pullman-Standard (i.e., not Budd) cars had stainless steel fluted sides. This included a large order for 64 seat coaches represented by Walthers 932-16785, NYC numbers 3000-3152, built in 1946.
Tom
Hi, Sandusky
The New York Central's Budd fleet were all of the fluted side variety. There was a "slab-side" Budd that was ordered by the Pennsylvania Railroad and, against the advice of the Budd Co. the PRR painted these cars (21 roomette "Harbor" ; two 10-6 "Rapids" and several types of twin-unit diners) in their Tuscan red, PRR later stripped the paint off in late 1967 or '68 just before the merger. (I wish Walthers would make these cars in the SS plated version, they have the painted ones!)
I believe SP, NP and maybe UP had some of this style, too. Perhaps others as well.
NYC did rebuild some Pullman coaches in the mid-1960s and stripped off the "snap-on" stainless fluting that contributed to premature rust since the water would get trapped under the fluting and severely rot the Cor-Ten steel underneath. The Budd cars were constructed (almost) entirely out of 18-8 stainless steel, even the center sill, giving these cars a long service life, many lasting well into the Amtrak years.
After the fluting was stripped, new side sheets were applied and some coaches got a very light gray paint and retained the stainless window band.
So, in effect, you could say that the NYC had some smooth sided, silver colored cars. There may be a few other examples out there. I know NYC had some A.C.F. cars with aluminum fluting that were later painted two-tone-gray.
Thanks for the vote of confidence, Tom! I'm in no way an "expert" but I do like to stay abreast of the doings of the Central.
Good Luck, Ed
Those NYC coaches look really sharp!
All of GN's and NP's dome cars were smooth(ish) sided Budd cars. I used the term "smoothish" because the sides actually had very wide spaced ribs--look at a picture and you can see. But I believe they were always painted, even when Amtrak got them and it would have looked "right" to have them be stainless. NP also had some Budd diners with Budd-style smooth sides.
SP's Budd cars were pretty typical Budd looking krinkle cars, except they sported a fetching scarlet letterboard:
The only Budd smooth sided cars that come to mind that were a stainless finish were the UP's 5903-5911 baggage-RPO's:
Ed
Amtrak did operate Budd cars with the flat panel sides. Some may have been painted, but I believe most were operated by Amtrak in plain stainless with painted graphics. As noted, the stainless didn't take paint well. In particular, I remember ex-GN Great Domes, ex-NP standard domes, and ex-PRR food service cars. Most of these were assigned to the Auto Train, but some standard domes were on the Capitol Limited in the late 1980's, before those trains were reequipped with Superliners.
I got to accompany my nephew on a deadhead move from Charlotte, to D.C., to Cincinnati, back in 2008 on two private cars. I photographed this one in D.C. the other car was the Oliver Hazard Perry an ex CN (Mount Resplendent) 5 compartment 3 drawing room car.
The owner renamed it Observatory. It was originally N-P 558 dome coach.
It clearly shows the wide, flat slab that some Budd-built cars used.
Lots of variety out there for the passenger modeler! Ed
ACY As noted, the stainless didn't take paint well.
As noted, the stainless didn't take paint well.
I'm just not seeing that at all.
If UP's Budd 10-6 sleepers were stainless, they certainly must have taken paint well. They were built in 1949, and they were painted the entire time they were owned by the UP. Over 20 years.
And GN's and NP's Budd cars were all painted the entire time they were owned by those railroads, at least 15 years. Oops. Almost forgot about NP's Slumbercoaches. Those WERE polished stainless. But not smooth sides.
And it appears that Amtrak kept painting the smooth side Budd cars. At least, I haven't found any photos of them with polished stainless sides. And I have seen plenty of them painted.
Note also that Amtrak managed to put big stripes of paint on the sides of all their polished stainless cars.