NYC F unit paint scheme colors.

[Anonymous]

I have an ABA set of F7s, used in freight service were any of these painted in lightening stripe and two tone gray? If so appproximately when did they end up in gray and black. All pics I have found are of the black & white variety and it is very difficult to determine if the darker shade is gray or black.

[jimrice4449]

NYC frt F untis were grey and black. There were a few F units (F-3 I believe) assigned to psgr service on the Boston & Albany that were two tone grey

[emdgp92]

NYC's freight Fs were black with grey lightning stripes. MR ran an article back in 1990 about how to paint these units. If memory serves me correctly, Floquil's "Engine Black" was sprayed on and Microscale decals added. If you use these decals, the slightly curved nose stripes are for F units--the set will do Alcos as well. Here are some photos for you:

http://www.rr-fallenflags.org/nyc/nyc1618alr.jpg
http://www.rr-fallenflags.org/nyc/nyc1631alr.jpg
http://www.rr-fallenflags.org/nyc/nyc1722alr.jpg

You didn't ask, but the NYC had E units that were grey. These were passenger units. They wouldn't get black paint until the 1968 Penn Central merger.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the pics. I think I have viewed every F7 in the Fallen Flag site. Trouble was that the black & white ones just seemed to give the impression that some of them were two tone grey. Anyway I am now just about finished. Just have a couple of decal questions. Under the road number on the side the units have an A on the engineer's side and a B on the fireman' s below that is the type of unit. My road numbers are 1640, 1690 & 2430, does anyone know the correct DFA & DFB details that these units carried? For instance DFA-7A and DFB-7B.
Decals I am using are Champ.

[emdgp92]

The black on the NYC units tended to fade to dark grey after awhile. Jim Six has done a few articles about detailing NYC diesels in MR over the years. MR also ran a Paint Shop article back in October 1990 that dealt with painting an A-B set of Athearn F7s. If I remember correctly, it was pretty easy--remove the steam generator details and paint the shell black. All of the striping is done with decals.