Did or Do Paint Shops Make Mistakes?

[Paul3]

There were a number of NH FL9's that had paint errors on them.  The red-orange/black/white scheme wasn't simple, and the paint shop would mess things up from time to time.

For example, the white front on the nose on one unit went all the way up to the headlight (which it isn't supposed to).  On another, they made the tops of the red-orange on the front angle upwards instead of being level.  Yet another was missing the black triangle below the headlight.

Another example is a NH FB-2 where the paint shop put the engine number on one end of the unit 4 times.

Heck, they even painted a bridge wrong (the one in my signature).  It's supposed to say "Weather Or No" on the top line and "Go New Haven" on the bottom with the entire bottom line in italics.  Well, the paint crew messed up the two "A"'s and reversed them.  It said:

WEATHER OR NO
GO NEW HAVEN

Oops.

[mvlandsw]

I have an Athearn B&O passenger car Lettered" Baltimore and oihO". A friend lettered a steam engine the same way.

I have a picture of a red,white, and blue BAR boxcar lettered "State of Maine Produots"

[BATMAN]

I think it was Jason Shron that mentioned one VIA rail FP unit that was painted incorrectly. Can't remember if Rapido produced it or not. No time to look just now.

[Eric White]

I recall a photo of a hopper or gondola lettered Norfolk West & ern.

Eric

[Mark B]

Years ago I saw a picture of a Baltimore and Ohio coal hopper in one of the train magazines.

It lettered B &       

The photographer called it an unconsumated ampersand.

Mark B

[cefinkjr]

Wasn't there a photo in MR (or Trains?) many years ago showing an L&N gondola with "IXDIE LINE" splashed across its side?

[gmpullman]

Oopsie, too much Solvaset.  Done that a time or two myself.

They should have laid the car on its side to do the lettering, too 

Rehgards, Ed

[Bayfield Transfer Railway]

gmpullman

 

I've seen a few in my time:

PC-220125_X61E 1970 by Edmund, on Flickr

Regards, Ed

 

Oopsie, too much Solvaset.  Done that a time or two myself.

[Bayfield Transfer Railway]

In another thread I mentioned the CNW buying ex-KCS E units and spray painting them, and you could still see all the KCS striping and lettering.

Some years ago the Soo Line HTS magazine showed a nose shot of a freshly painted SD40-2.  The sides of the red nose were neatly masked, but you could see that the white walkway was not masked, and there was considerable overspray from the bottom of the short hood on the front walkway.

 

[gmpullman]

In the post-PRR/NYC merger era I witnessed many EMD E and F units with their side panels swapped out and the front doors were sometimes switched around, too. You could see shades of gray, tuscan and black, sometimes plain painted plywood and any combination of lettering, even upside-down on occasion.

Especially on earlier E7 and F3 engines that the shops knew were headed for scrap or trade in soon.

Good Luck, Ed

 

[jeffhergert]

Back about the mid 1970s the Rock Island had a rebuild program that encompassed most of the GP7 and GP9 fleet.  One of the engines was released from the paint shop in the blue and white scheme.  Except that the white used on that unit wasn't the correct shade but more of a cream or off white color.  The RI, rolling in money like it was, had the unit repainted with the correct white. 

Speaking of wasting scarce money, some of the first units rebuilt were painted in the then current bright red and yellow Rock island scheme.  Those units were repainted in the blue and white scheme after that became the new standard.

Jeff   

[rrinker]

 Old Railroad Modeler magazine had a shot of an SP piggyback train where one of the trailers was lettered for the Souther Pacific.

                                           --Randy

 

[dknelson]

I took a photo of a covered hopper where the entire side had a sort of "alligator skin" look.  I suspect it was a paint shop goof of some sort, but I suspect not factory paint but a car shop repaint.

Dave Nelson

[wjstix]

One that happened with switchers and road switchers was that the shop crew would swap out a damaged access door on the long hood with one from another engine (like one that was being cannabalised for parts) so the railroad name would be jumbled or part missing.   PEN NSY LVA NIA might come out PEN NSY      NIA   or    PEN LVA LVA NIA.

[gmpullman]

I wonder how much Solva-Set the Santa-Fe went through in a week?

 

ATSF_Carshop by Edmund, on Flickr

 

Regards, Ed

[OT Dean]

Slightly off-topic, but even prototype lettering wasn't always perfect, either.  Some of us old-timers remember photos in MR's "RPO" showing cars lettered "PENNSYLVALVA" and "SOUTHEUT!"  And I've seen sloppy lettering like that "PC" and sometimes letters and number out of alignment, too.  I think there may have been less of this back in the early days, when everything was produced by craftsmen who were proud of their work and took pains to make it right.  I've seen photos of freight cars where all the square-headed lag screws and bolts were lined up as though a straight edge was laid across them.

Everybody stay safe and have fun!

Deano

[Mykhalin]

The paint from the prototype manufacturing plant, or from the in-house shop on important equipment (think UP4141 or the 4014 Big Boy) are going to be close to perfection. Patch jobs, in-house repaints, and paint jobs done under less than ideal conditions (shortlines, museum or tourist operators, etc.) might be less perfect. In translating that to your layout, you cannot hold the model under a microscope. Look at the bigger picture. Do the flaws leap out at you from a passing train? If not, then do not worry about it. It's your hobby, not your profession. ;-)

[mvlandsw]

If you look closely at prototype equipment you will find lots of runs and ripples. They are not very obvious though since they are so small compared to the size of the equipment. If the flaws on a model were true to scale they would be invisible.

[SeeYou190]

Lots of photographs of 1950s railroad equipment show "dimensioanl data" that was applied very sloppily.

We expect our models to be crisp and legible under high magnification, but in the 1950s at least, a lot of it was blurry with rough edges, and obviously done in a hurry.

Sorry, I do not have a collection of prototype photographs to share.

-Kevin

[gmpullman]

jjdamnit

Would prototypical railroads allow a less than "perfect" paint jobs leave the facility?

I've seen a few in my time:

PC-220125_X61E 1970 by Edmund, on Flickr

PC_2576_Coach by Edmund, on Flickr

Trains Magazine would occasionally feature a page of "goofs" showing, say two identical car numbers or mixed up stencil jobs. Of course, there were dozens of "Patch-Outs" that might be considered goofs as well.

In the hoped-for SP-SF merger there were locomotives painted with space for the anticipated post-merger lettering, that never happened.

CZ_Kodachrome by Edmund, on Flickr

They had planned to add SF after the merger.

Regards, Ed

[BRAKIE]

Real locomotives may not even have the correct paint.. Several B&O locomotives was painted in C&O's "Enchantment Blue" and the only thing the shop did was replace the C with a B-these are the units that C&O sent to the B&O to shore up B&O's aging diesel fleet..  These ex C&O units retain their C&O  numbers and the bell mounted on the short hood.. They also had the Capital Dome on the short hood.

This happen shortly aftet C&O took control of the B&O through buying stock.. These units just had C&O on their long hood instead of "Chesapeake & Ohio" spilled out. 

Shop workers did make mistakes in painting equipment or use any (say) dark blue paint in a spray can to cover minor repairs or a weld spots. I seen a PRR boxcar spilled Pennsylvannia.. It had one "n" to many.

[jjdamnit]

Hello All,

I am in the process of painting my rolling stock and motive power.

There have been many posts on this forum about painting difficulties.

My question is, in the prototypical world, when a paint shop "botched" a paint job- -streaks or ripples- -did anyone care?

I prepped and painted a shell today and there are slight ripples in the base paint job.

Yes...I used a rattle can rather than firing up my airbrush. However, I did use the warm water bath method. 

Interestingly, when the paint fully cured all the details of the doors, fans and vents remained, along with horizontal ripples in the paint.

Personally I am not concerned with the faults in the paint job. I'm just going to decal and finish.

Would prototypical railroads allow a less than "perfect" paint jobs leave the facility?

Thanks for your thoughts.