A quote from our old friend, Andy:
Silver, or as the railroad called it, aluminum, is the correct color forSanta Fe steam locomotive lettering in this century. The AT&SF recordsalways refer to aluminum paint and never mention white. White decalscould be used to represent very old and faded lettering, as the metallicpigments tended to wash away faster than the paint's light-colored base. But if you adopt that course you've started weathering your model andaren't really following the railroad's practice.
So long,
Andy SperandeoMODEL RAILROADER Magazine
I checked both my Bachmann and my BLI AT&SF 4-8-4s and both had a really whitish silver.
From 1 feet away, you would think that its white, but upon close inspection, it is slightly silver.
So I vote for silver!!!
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Modeling the PRR & NYC in HO
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On looking at Microscale decal sets for ATSF steam they have both Silver and White sets so my thought would be the old saw......pick your poison !!
I believe the correct color is silver, but the southwest sun bleached the letters and numbers so they looked more whitish. This also holds true for switchers and the original pre-1960 paint scheme for hood units.
On checking the pictures in Iron Horses of the Santa Fe Trail even though in b/w I'd have to say the correct color was White.
also in years gone by I have used Champ ATSF steam decals and they too were always white.and we know Champ was fussy about correct colors.
Also, when weathered the silver would be more whitish.......
ENJOY !
Mobilman44
Living in southeast Texas, formerly modeling the "postwar" Santa Fe and Illinois Central
Silver is the correct color.
Some people prefer white because of the improved contrast with the black, and if you are going to weather the engine, it show up better.
So why are the decals for Santa Fe steam locomotives offered in white or silver? I have always thought they looked white and believed they were always white. I always use the white decals for my AT&SF steam locomotives. I have wondered about this for a while. Any thoughts on the subject will be appreciated. Thanks!