Lettering colors on SCL GP and U-Boat motive power

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I model Seaboard Coast Line freight locomotives. As a child in the 1970's, I lived along the old ACL Pinner's Point route at the General Electric spur intersection(sadly abandoned and removed in Nov.1986) between Suffolk, VA and the Portsmouth marine terminal. I distinctly remember the freshly painted black and yellow motive power with solid WHITE lettering instead of the silver/aluminum lettering made by Microscale,Herald-King and Walther's railroad decals. These three companies don't make them in white. When asked why not, they replied the white lettering never existed! I tried to prove to them differently but I could find no color photos to support my claim (if only I owned a camera then). Are these companies incorrect or is my own memory faulty? -Andrew

-- Andrew Callo ('p.callo@worldnet.att.net'), February 28, 1998

Answers

Does anyone know the RGB (Computer color value) of the aluminum Paint - also what font was used - looks like an italic Arial

Thanks - and it was nice meeting some of you in folkston this past november

Jason Webb www.scl-aline.com

-- Jason Webb (jwebb@cfl.rr.com), January 08, 2003.


The only engine lettered in white was the bicentennial U-36B 1776:2. Lettering was applied to the frame edge, below the walkway instead of on the hood doors.

-- Jim Sapienza (sapijim@shen.neric.org), June 01, 1998.

Interesting observation about the reflective aluminum fading to a lighter shade. I won't argue that this may have happened on some units, however, in all my years of observing ACL and SCL locos, I never saw one that struck me as significantly lighter -- certainly some fading happened with weathering and grime, but not that much in my experience.

-- Larry Goolsby (LGoolsby@apwa.org), May 11, 1998.

Thanks guys for taking time to respond to this question. It has certainly been a great help to me hearing from you. I am very familiar with many of the photographs some of you have published over the years and I would love sometime if someone would publish an all color SCL book. I have learned something else about the lettering no one seems to have mentioned. In a face to face discussion with one of your members, we poured through some photographs and discussed this aluminum reflective lettering. Apparently, after years of exposure to the sun, this reflective color would bleach to a solid white before fading away completely. There were several photographs to prove this and I have obtained one of them. Also, upon visiting the NC Transportation Museum in Spencer, NC, I chanced upon a Baldwin S-12 in classic SAL red and black scheme. The SEABOARD lettering, orignally reflective aluminum, had bleached its color away to a pale white. The restoration staff told me only reflective aluminum (not to be confused with silver) has that effect and can fade very quickly. The coat on the S-12 is not its original either. The imitation aluminum band around the SOUTHERN locomitives suffers the same fate in direct sunlight as well as some of the special NORFOLK SOUTHERN locomotives in reflective aluminum.

-- Andrew Callo (calloa@ncsavx.ncarts.edu), May 09, 1998.

Like ACL lettering, the SCL lettering on its black locomotives was "ALUMINUM" and not "silver" and certainly not "white!"

Jim Six

-- Jim Six (jimsix@ncweb.com), March 21, 1998.



The lettering was silver and not white. I have photos and company lettering diagrams and was always silver lettering.

-- Stan Jackowski (stanjack@gte.net), March 21, 1998.

All SCL painting an lettering diagrams I have all state that the lettering is aluminun, It was never white!

-- Warren Calloway (calloway@aol.com), March 15, 1998.

Your memory is faulty!The lettering is aluminum.

-- Joseph Oates (jlosal@gte.net), March 07, 1998.

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