Santa Fe Bx-37 40ft Boxcar Paint Scheme

[Trainman440]

Hello all,

I've collected quite a lot of Santa Fe boxcars over the years. There are a few varients. 

Some are all brown. Some have a black roof, black roofwalk, and brown sides. Some have black roof, but brown roofwalks, and brown sides. Others have Silver roofwalks, black roofs, and brown sides. 

Im sure some prototypes were painted in different varients, but what color varient was the most common?

 

Thanks,

Charles

[7j43k]

Charles,

I recommend getting this book:

 

https://sfrhms.org/product/santa-fe-railway-painting-and-lettering-guide/

 The society has also done a book about Santa Fe boxcars in the style you show.  It's Volume 4 of their rolling stock series.  It's not currently offered on their site, but you might find it somewhere else.

The painting and lettering guide will give you a lot to think about, anyway.

 

Ed

[NHTX]

     Charles, I second getting the Santa Fe paint/lettering guide.  The following is from the Santa Fe Railway Historical and Modeling Society's Santa Fe Railway Rolling Stock Reference Series- Volume Three, Furniture and Automobile Box Cars 1887-1997.   Although the focus of this book is not the BX-37 class, when a railroad developes a paint standard for say, boxcars, it includes all boxcars until the standard is revised, with variations in lettering only, more likely.  Therefore, the painting standard for a given era would apply to ALL cars of a given major type, making the same paint guidance used on the FE (auto and FurniturE) cars, most likely used on the Bx class cars of the same era.  According to the book I have, from 1931 to 1951, Santa Fe used the following colors on the FE class cars:  Mineral brown;  sides, doors and ends, wood running boards, underframes and trucks on repainted cars.  Black: trucks and underframes on new cars only; route card boards and herald backgrounds.  Anti slip (matt) black; roofs and steel running boards (on repainted cars).  1951-1986: Mineral brown: sides,  doors  and ends, trucks and underframes of repainted cars  and wood running boards.  Black:  trucks and underframes of new or newly rebuilt cars only, route card boards and herald backgrounds. Anti slip (matt) black: roof.  In 1951, mineral red paint with reddish-brown coarse granules sprinkled on while the paint was still wet began to replace black "car cement" with black granules.  Into the mid 1950s, black, with either black or reddish brown granules continued to be used on some car roofs.  The anti slip finishes faded out of use in the late 1950s/early 1960s as trainmen were discouraged from going atop equipment.  One would tend to believe the silver colored roof walks on your cars represent unpainted, galvanized replacements, as unpainted boards would replace rotted or damaged boards in a wood roof walk. Interestingly, no where could I find a requirement for black ends on Bx-37 cars in the references I have, which makes the ATSF painting guide a good investment.  In a car fleet as vast as the ATSF had, who can be certain what was right and what was wrong, without photos?