I am painting a Weaver O Scale caboose to represent a Southern Railway four window, center cupola steel caboose for the 1945-1950 era steam as found on the Keysville VA to Durham NC branch. I am assuming that the lettering was yellow. The Champion Decal book states that the roofs were black. There is no specific information as to the roof walks whether they are black or red. Any help as to the use of yellow on the steps would also be helpful. Are the end safety handrail/ladders black or red?

Thanks in advance for any help. Tom

-- Tom Carrington (tcarring@erols.com), October 17, 2002

Answers

Tom--I was not aware that the Southern owned any steel center cupola cabs until they bought the Interstate in the early 1960s. The first steel cabs I know of were the bay window cabs built in 1941 and afterwards. These were preceeded by wooden center cupola cabs. Anyway there are color photos in the photo gallery showing various paint schemes--Larry

-- Larry Puckett (ljpuckett@comcast.net), December 24, 2002.

Tom,

I am not a modeler, but I started taking photos of Southern Railway trains as far back as 1948 at Graham, NC, then in 1969 I went to work with the Southern. I do not remember any cabooses, cupola or bay window, with a black roof, except maybe with regular railroad grime. I know some say so, but I don't recall any with painted black roofs. Anyway some overhead photos that I have from ca.1950s do not show a black roof. It was all red, including the walkway. Steps and all hand rails, plus brake wheels were yellow.

-- J. Marvin Black (sr6100diesel@bigfoot.com), October 22, 2002.