General Discussion (Model Railroader)

 I picked up a pair of F 9's made my Stewart Hobbies in Rio Grand Colors. Over all a good engine I will add.

 As you can see they have black trucks. Some trucks where painted silver, right? Black trucks and fuel tank, just do not look right to me.

 Hope for some pictures before I start taking them a part.

                Cuda Ken

Ken: 

My Genesis F-3 four-stripes with my "Prospector" passenger train. 

Silver trucks. 

Don't take them apart, just carefully hand-brush the truck frames and the fuel tanks.  A small camel-hair brush and Floquil's "Old Silver" should do the trick. 

 Tom

 Tom, yours have silver roofs, mine are black. Does that signifies freight / passenger engines? Good looking engines, who are they by?

              Ken

Ken,

 Tom said his were Genesis models. That would be Athearn's Genesis line that made his. Im an east coast modeler but i do love the DRGW, especially the F units. Great looking models guys.

Ken: 

Actually, when it comes down to it, Rio Grande changed the color scheme on their 'covered wagon' diesels at almost any kind of whim.    When both the F-3 and PA units were delivered to the railroad, they were painted in black and yellow. 

Then came the Grande and Silver 4-stripe and the Grande and Silver single stripe.  Roofs and trucks were painted either black or silver depending on what the Burnham shops were thinking at the time.  I don't think Rio Grande ever had a 'standard' paint scheme from year to year (or even month to month). 

So I'd say that you're safe with your black, Grande Gold and Silver F-9's.  Stewart has never been known for 'fanciful' paint schemes.  In fact, Stewart was the first to produce the Rio Grande F-3's in the original black and yellow early passenger scheme. 

Frankly, that's the color scheme I was looking for but couldn't find, and settled on the later Grande Gold and Silver 4-stripe scheme. 

My F's are Genesis/Athearn.  Strictly DC, but they're smooth, powerful and very quiet.  And very nicely detailed.  I only run them on my "Prospector" streamliner, because Rio Grande originally bought them as passenger units. 

Never run them heading a freight, that's what my steamers are for, LOL!

But I think you're prototypically safe leaving your F-9's the way they are.  As I said, I don't think Rio Grande EVER made up their minds on a 'real' F-unit paint scheme. 

Tom  

Ken,

There are a lot of other train related websites on the internet other than trains.com.  Spend a little time away from here and start finding and checking these sites out.  There are many of them and they've been mentioned frequently in other posts.  Plus, posting pics from other sources would violated this forum's rules and the owner's copyright on the images.

 Tom, and other sorry I missed the fact they where Genesis. All so Tom, thanks for the detail answer as well. I like yours much better than mine I will add.

 Silver Pilot, I did a keyword search for Rio Grand F 9, Rio Grand F and Rio Grand it self. Found a few Black and White pictures but nothing that really helped.

            Cuda Ken

cudaken:

  Silver Pilot, I did a keyword search for Rio Grand F 9, Rio Grand F and Rio Grand it self. Found a few Black and White pictures but nothing that really helped.

            Cuda Ken

Keep looking - they're out  there on plenty of the well known and populated websites.  'Nothing really helped"???? Your original post didn't indicate what you need help with beyond to say that the engines you bought 'don't look right.'  What do you need help with.  Stewart does an excellent job of research before releasing a model.  Take it for being relatively accurate.  They wouldn't mess up something as basic as truck color.

cudaken:

 I picked up a pair of F 9's made my Stewart Hobbies in Rio Grand Colors. Over all a good engine I will add.

 As you can see they have black trucks. Some trucks where painted silver, right? Black trucks and fuel tank, just do not look right to me.

 Hope for some pictures before I start taking them a part.

                Cuda Ken

The trucks were painted during a few years during passenger service.  During the single stripe era, only briefly.  Black was the primary color of the trucks most of their lives, whether or not it looks right to you. If you don't like it, you are free to use modelers license.

 I am going to paint the trucks and fuel tanks, may take a crack at the roof as well.

 Thanks for all the answers and your folks time.

                  Cuda Ken

 Paint away if you like Ken, but my quick search yielded results that would argue otherwise. Most pictures of F units I could find had black trucks, and from what I could tell, black roofs as well. What are the numbers for your units? Perhaps we could locate a prototype picture.

At any rate do what you want, they are after all your F units. 

-Cahrn 

cudaken:

 Tom, and other sorry I missed the fact they where Genesis. All so Tom, thanks for the detail answer as well. I like yours much better than mine I will add.

 Silver Pilot, I did a keyword search for Rio Grand F 9, Rio Grand F and Rio Grand it self. Found a few Black and White pictures but nothing that really helped.

            Cuda Ken

There are several photos, including color, on the Fallen Flags site

http://www.rr-fallenflags.org/drgw/drgw.html

Ricky

Leave them as is.  The paint is correct.  I believe this particular scheme (single wide black stripe) was the last F unit paint scheme used by the D&RGW.  Just do a Google image search of D&RGW 5771 to see the many photos of this particular paint scheme:

And take a look at these excellent high detail HO models from the Details West website:

So as you can see, Stewart is pretty much spot on accurate.  Which doesn't surprise me.  One thing you might want to add to your A unit is a nose anti-glare panel.

cudaken:

 I am going to paint the trucks and fuel tanks, may take a crack at the roof as well.

 Thanks for all the answers and your folks time.

                  Cuda Ken

I don't think you will find any photo's of the prototype with single stripe paint and the configuration you wish to paint them. 

As others have noted, paint on the Stewart is correct.  The only paint you need to apply is the green patch under the front windshields.  If you are in love with a silver roof, trucks and tank, get the 4-stripe paint scheme because that had those items.  Trucks were also black on the 4-stripe but did have silver roof and skirts.  Or, modelers license and paint them in a way the real RR never ran them.

F9 with one stripe and silver wheel sets and silver roof.

http://www.rr-fallenflags.org/drgw/drgw5771cwc.jpg

Same F9 5771 without silver wheel sets, black roof

http://www.rr-fallenflags.org/drgw/drgw5771ags.jpg

F unit 5534 with one stripe and silver wheel set

 http://www.rr-fallenflags.org/drgw/drgw5534jsa.jpg

Pics from the FallenFlags site