Car colors

[ericsp]

Does anyone know why most of some types of cars are painted the same color regardless of owner?

Most tankcars are painted black with a significant amount of white ones (with Transportation Equipment, Inc, Dow/Union Carbide being a couple of exceptions).

Most covered hoppers are painted light gray.

Most non-TTX container cars are painted red.

Most open-top hoppers car painted black. Of course it seems like if they are in coal or coke service they end up being black anyway. I guess that explains the open top hoppers.

[csxengineer98]

thougth most TTX cars where painted yellow
csx engineer

[ericsp]

Most TTX cars are yellow. I was saying most container cars not owned by TTX are red. However, I have been seeing brown TTX center beams and red TTX containers lately.

[jabrown1971]

NON-TTX are are red for the most part, Cars are painted colors that are the same for ease of painting. The more common the color the cheaper the paint.

[JoeKoh]

Ive seen alot of boxcars lately in a rainbow of graffiti.
stay safe
Joe

[CShaveRR]

Anything in the way of Center-Beams or stack cars on TTX that isn't yellow is secondhand. Those brown Center-beams are ex-AOK, if I remember correctly, and the red stack cars were originally lettered (or intended to be lettered) NCUX.

In the case of the container cars, red is the color preferred by the Greenbrier Companies. For whatever reason, they (Gunderson, Trenton Works, and Gunderson Concarril) seem to provide most of the cars to companies that aren't TTX. However, BNSF is now getting its stack cars in red oxide paint, as opposed to red.

I'm still curious about why some tank cars are white instead of black. White cars seem to be restricted to acid tanks (not all of them) or pressure tanks (usually anhydrous ammonia, but again, not exclusively). I'm excluding the tank cars that have paint schemes of their lessees, such as the kaolin-slurry tanks, etc. As to why tank cars are black in general, they look better. If some of the liquid is spilled on a black tank car, it just looks wet--if it's spilled on a white tank car, you'd get the color of the liquid, plus accumulated grime, and so on. (One exception to that is sulfur, but that may be another story.)

[dehusman]

Black hoppers don't show coal dust and its a very common, pretty industructable color.

The reddish brown used on other cars is a very stable color, it doesn't fade as fast and is a cheap color.

Covered hoppers were originally used for cement so the grey wouldn't show spillage.

Yellow is the corporate color chosen by TTX (as orange was SFRD and yellow for PFE) so TTX equipment is yellow for the most part.

Dave H.

[eolafan]

No doubt it is all due to either utilitarianism (i.e., black cars look better when they get dirty) or more likely the preferences of their owners.

[espeefoamer]

QUOTE: Originally posted by eolafan

No doubt it is all due to either utilitarianism (i.e., black cars look better when they get dirty) or more likely the preferences of their owners.

That's why SP painted its diesels dark gray[;)]!

[eolafan]

QUOTE: Originally posted by espeefoamer

QUOTE: Originally posted by eolafan

No doubt it is all due to either utilitarianism (i.e., black cars look better when they get dirty) or more likely the preferences of their owners.

That's why SP painted its diesels dark gray[;)]!

Yes ineed, and also why Penn Central and NS painted/paint their locomotives basic black as well....they don't need to wa***hem as often. As big a fan of BNSF and their current paint scheme as I may be, the BNSF paint on some of the newer units looks pretty bad when in need of a good wash, and VERY MANY of their units are in need of a bath.

[tree68]

Money, Money, Money. That's why you don't see two-color cars (rotary dump hoppers notwithstanding) or fancy heralds anymore. Just big walls of oxide red.

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by tree68

Money, Money, Money. That's why you don't see two-color cars (rotary dump hoppers notwithstanding) or fancy heralds anymore. Just big walls of oxide red.

You really don't even see logo's on boxcars anymore, just the reporting marks.

Ho-Hum.

[corwinda]

In Springfield, OR I regularly see methanol tank cars in white, gray, red, and blue in addition to black.

[morseman]

Many of the oxide red box cars today only have reporting marks
at the bottom of the cars and most of these are owned not by the railroads but by leasing companies. The biggest leasing company is Wichovia Bank.
Other leasing companies are GE Rail Services, CIT Rail Resources, Bombardier Capital, Helm Leasing
First Union Rail is part of Banker Wachovia Corp.

[dldance]

Some pressurized tank cars (propane, ammonia, etc.,) are painted white to reduce solar heating and the internal pressure increase that would bring.

dd

[corwinda]

Is that the reason most sulfuric acid tank cars are also painted white?

[ericsp]

QUOTE: Originally posted by dldance

Some pressurized tank cars (propane, ammonia, etc.,) are painted white to reduce solar heating and the internal pressure increase that would bring.

dd

That is possible. However, most are black. Also after the Kingman, AZ BLEVE (if I remember correctly) they are require to have insulation on them to stand up to flame impingement for a specified amount of time. I am not sure they are painted white to reduce heat. Do you remember where you heard that?