Color

I am pretty sure that it could've been painted in different colors at different time throughout it's lifetime. Another commomn color besides that Pullman green could've been red, or yellow. Most of the time the railroad always used those basic colors because it was the least expensive.

Why not use the Central

Why not use the Central Vermont's standard structure color scheme? 

(Mineral Red is the railroad's official name for the color, and Badger and Scalecoat both make this paint - labeled "CN Red #11).

While that color is great for freight cars, I think it's a little redder than most of the buildings - for them I use either Polly Scale DRGW Red or ordinary Floquil Boxcar Red with a few drops of caboose red to lessen the purpleish cast.

Marty

Why not use the CV's standard

Why not use the CV's standard structure scheme? Becuase I didn't know they had one. If I've read about that, than I've missed it. I tell ya, starting out in this hobby takes some guts, as you realize how little you actually know.

I knew they had a fleet color, but not for structures. Do you know the trim color? Thanks for the paint mentions. I have the engine house next on my list, and that I was going to do in red, so I'll mix up an appropiate shade.

I started last night going over some reference books and looking closely at the pictures, and looking for water tanks. So far I've found two in color photographs; one appears black (but that maybe from lighting and soot), and the other stained wood (also blackened in a lot of spots from soot.). So now I'm considering staining the model, but somehow that seems inappropiate in my mind.

I'll keep digging!

Damn this thing - I just posted a long response and it vanished

See subject line - I'll try and repost it.

Lesson learned - copy responses before hitting "Save"

I think you have the reference material you need

but I suggest you join the CVRHS (if you don't already belong) and join the CV Yahoo Group.

Water tanks were painted red - but no one will arrest you for having one that looks like weathered wood - meaning it needs to be repainted soon. I have color shots of the tanks at home and will scan one later if I can find it.

If the tank had a wood support the support was "treated and unpainted" - meaning it was creosote which was essentially black.

If the tank had steel support structures, the steel was also black - in a number of cases the wood support would be replaced with a steel one with the tank still in service - they mounted new steel legs and knocked away the wood structure when finished. Look at the picture of the Essex Junction tank in the CV Color Book by Morning Sun and you'll see an example of this. Amherst also had a tank with steel legs - much fancier than those at SXJ.

Standard structure colors were originally a yellow/cream color (officially called "ochre siding color" by the railroad) with red-brown trim (which I'd take to be a boxcar red color - more brown than "barn red").

In the 1940s the color scheme shifted to Red no, 11 walls with yellow windows. People doors were supposed to be black (although some I've seen were painted red). Freight and baggage doors were the wall color. The windows only had the mullions and sashes painted - the window frames were the siding color - here's an example of what I mean -

I don't know exactly when the color scheme for the buildings changed - and it was a slow process - but I assume it started about the time the CV changed the background color on its steam locomotive tender monograms from green to red to match the CNs, GTW, and GT(NEL).  That was in June, 1943.

One of the problems with modeling the CV across a wide spectrum of years (1930 and on, for example) are the obvious inconsistensies it can introduce. To a knowledgeable viewer a CV steam engine with a green herald tells me it's before WWII - red is after WWII. Of course, since we've seen many, many more color pictures of the red tender heralds we assume they were always like that.

Vans(cabooses) are the same problem - the one shown here is painted in the CV's standard post-WWII (Actually, about 1948 in this case) scheme - Morency Orange no. 10 body, black roof, orange running boards, and underframe, trucks, and platforms painted Mineral Red no. 11.

Before that they would have been painted all Mineral Red no. 11 with this stacked lettering. Prior to WWII the railroad name was spelled out below the the windows in Roman lettering UNLESS the car had the "Rocket" logo painted on the side - in which case the roadname was spelled out above the windows.

Ah, the joys and perils of prototype modeling.

Marty

Need a new macro

I need a new macro key that types "Thanks, Marty" when I hit it.

Thanks Marty.

I greatly appreciate the info. I still need to join the CVRHS, I picked up an application at the Springfield show last month.

I've also, thanks again to you, scaled back, and I'm not planning on doing 1930-on. I'm looking at the early 50's to 60's.

I realize that this campbell kit isn't prototype to what I'm doing but at this stage it's an opportunity to work in the medium, if you know what I mean.

No matter how much you know you eventually find out you missed..

No matter how much you think you know you eventually deiscover that you either missed something in your research or you didn't come across it yet.

To bad everything you need to know about a specific railroad can't be found in one place, especially if it's a fallen flag railroad.

In my case with the New York Connecting Railroad, it involves several fallen flags including the Pennsylvania, the New Haven, the New York Cross Harbor, Conrail and probably a few I've forgotten to mention. Given the number of railroad historical societies I might have to join to be on the road to getting all of the information available, I would probably need the budget of a small coutry to accomplish it. That isn't available so one has to do the next best thing. Searching the internet is cheap and you never know what you'll come up with even from Wickipedia.

Irv

You could use the Campbell tank

and scratchbuild a steel support structure for the base. Then it will look like a CV water tank. It's not hard to do if you use some Evergreen styrene or even brass shapes.

Marty

That would be easy enough

I could do that, I have the styrene - but what keeps the water from freezing? Just curious.

RED

With both CV and CP having red structures.. Northern Vermont had a lot of very red railroad buildings..

I like how the red contrasts with scenery. The cream color of the B&M stuff doesn't have the same punch in a scene.

Chris

Stain

Marty, after looking a bit more in depth, I found color photos that had tanks in Montpelier Jct, Essex, and Amherst. All of them have what look like stained wood tops, and iron construct bases.

Did they stop painting them after a certain era? 

Those photos were taken at the end of the steam

or after steam had been retired.

I'd say they stopped painting the tanks at some point as a matter of practicality, but it was never an "official" edict or anything.