Always good to work off a photo:
DRGW_5771 by Edmund, on Flickr
The main cab and carbody handrails are primarily silver. The engine cab handrails get quite a bit of use and sometimes the paint gets rubbed thin or completely worn away.
DRGW_5771a by Edmund, on Flickr
Notice, too, how the pilot does not exactly match the carbody color. As Wayne points out the paint is often touched up or damage is repaired and the paint may not match precicely. Many model railroaders obsess over paint matching. In reality paints were supplied by several manufacturers and variations crept in from year to year or shop to shop.
Good Luck, Ed
When painting grab irons and handles on already painted cars, go for a color that is slightly lighter.
.
It will just look like the sun is reflecting off of the handles and will make the details pop a bit better.
-Kevin
Living the dream.
That is alot of good information Wayne. Thanks for that.
Something to keep in mind (although it might not apply so much to locomotives in the era before run-throughs or power-sharing, which is now so widespread) is that things such as grabirons, hand rails, and sill steps, etc., etc., are considered "safety appliances".
As such, if a boxcar from road "A" shows up on road "B" with a missing grabiron, road "B" is obligated to replace that grabiron before releasing that car, either back to road "A" or to a road which connects with road "A".
If road "A's" car is, f'rinstance, painted orange, and road "B" doesn't have a matching orange or even any orange, that grabiron will be painted with whatever colour might be on-hand.
Road "A" will be billed an industry-wide set-fee for whatever work has been done, and it's very unlikely that they'll re-paint that item unless the car becomes due for a total re-paint.
I've added free-standing grabirons to most of my freight cars, and because they cycle on-and off-layout at various staging yards, and get returned to their respective boxes, the paint on those grabirons occasionally gets scraped or chipped. When I notice some that need touch-up, I grab whatever colour seems sorta close and just slap it on. It gives your rolling stock some true-to-life "character", especially if a car that was already heavily weathered shows-up sporting a couple of "new" grabirons.For the same reason, I often letter rolling stock using decals or dry transfers, but leave off some of the weight data, masking-off the area where it's supposed to go. The car is then weathered, the masking removed, and the missing lettering applied, giving the impression that the original data was painted-over when the car was re-weighed, with the new data stencilled-on the new patch of not-always-matching paint....
On cars already painted, lettered, and weathered, the same "new data" can be added by painting some clear decal paper with a suitable colour, then applying it over the existing data. The new (and clean) data can then be applied over that.
Note, too, that the re-pack data (near the lower right end of the car, and usually near the trucks) might be similar in colour to that of the car, but often could be black, and not necessarily done at the same time- or place of the re-weigh.
Wayne
RR_Mel I’ve had really good luck with the correct color of the True Color Paints. I seriously doubt if anyone could notice the difference on a handrail even if it was off quite a bit. I’ve hand mixed colors for tiny things and have found that close is close enough. When I’m doing touchup on something if there is a slight mismatch a bit of weathering easily takes care of it. Mel My Model Railroad http://melvineperry.blogspot.com/ Bakersfield, California I'm beginning to realize that aging is not for wimps.
My mistake. I forgot to say which road name I was talking about. Sorry I need the D&RGW Colors. (Original Post Updated.)
After looking at some pictures of prototype F7 units, I found that the handrails on the sides were red and the nose handrails were yellow. The link below is for Tru-color's color chart.
Tru-Color lists their Santa Fe yellow as number:
Tru-color Santa Fe yellow
I hope this helps.
Marlon
See pictures of the Clinton-Golden Valley RR
Does anyone know if tru-color D&RGW Aspen Gold and aluminum are a match for the factory paint on the blue box D&RGW F7A and B units. Trying to match the color on some grab handles.
Thanks in advance for all the help.