PC: Black Paint

["Gerhard A. Stuebben" <stuebben@xxxxxxxxx>]

Black has has been a "classic" color for locomotives ever since the NYC
pioneered its use in the mid-19th Century. Early locomotives were often
painted in color, and some even had portraits of the namesake painted on
their sides. In comparison, black is cheaper both to apply and maintain,
and was quickly adopted by other roads as well.  Just compare
photographs of Civil War locomotives with those taken in the 1870s and
you will see how quickly the decorative paint schemes died out.

Also take a look at the direction the PC's precedessor roads were going.
NYC abandoned it's lightning stripes in favor of a very cheap-to-apply
cigar band, and by the end even abandoned the cigar band and fra  
     ing.  By 1966, PRR was down to sticking decal heralds on black
locomotives (or if you prefer, "brunswick green").   

Since PC management came from the PRR and NYC, the use of black was
predictable.  One might even argue that PC was "fancy" compared to the
last NYC and PRR schemes!



Bastler wrote:
> 
> Maybe it was a sort of shroud predicting of things to come...
> 
> From:          BGXX32A -AT- prodigy.com (MR PETER A KING)
> Date:          Sat, 28 Feb 1998 16:37:32, -0500
> To:            penn-central -AT- smellycat.com
> Subject:       Re: PC: Speculative Modelling
> Reply-to:      penn-central -AT- smellycat.com
> 
> Rob, I do have the PC Power book, and I've seen the picture of the
> Despatch Shops switcher. The caption mentions that it was repainted
> to PC black after it was moved to the regular roster, so I suspect
> that PC would not have 'livened up' their paint job. I wonder why
> they chose black to begin with? I realize they wanted an asture
> scheme, and didn't want red or green, but they could have used
> another color.
> 
> Peter King in NY
> >Peter,
> >    I've always envisioned exactly the same in passenger equipment.
>   Do
> >you think PC would still be painting motive power black?   If you
> own a
> >copy of "PC Power" by Bob Yanosey, there is a color photo on pg. 136
> of a
> >switcher painted by Despatch shops.  It is black with a green band
> centered
> >horizontally, bordered by white stripes, and the PC logo/lettering
> in the
> >green.  Looks real sharp!!   I think all would be forgiven by
> railfans in
> >general had PC chosen this scheme.
> >     Rob