COLA arrived today

[CBQ Fan]

I gotta tell you that I think you UP fanatics are complaining about nothing....at least with regard to Armour Yellow. Short of your cars coming directly out of the paint shop and being on their very first trip, all new, all from the same batch, you would see protptypical variation equal to, or greater then anything Kato has shown here. I'm all for consistancy but exactly what level of consistancy between cars made years a part are we expecting.... paint formulas and materal availablity, plastic car materials, application equipment and methodology.... the list of potential variation sources is huge.

But the overwelming issue is, the prototpyes didn't have the colour control you are looking for, at least not after a week or two in the sun, rain, snow, hail, wind, dirt, soot, grime.......

Well put!!

[sirenwerks]

I gotta tell you that I think you UP fanatics are complaining about nothing....at least with regard to Armour Yellow. Short of your cars coming directly out of the paint shop and being on their very first trip, all new, all from the same batch, you would see protptypical variation equal to, or greater then anything Kato has shown here. I'm all for consistancy but exactly what level of consistancy between cars made years a part are we expecting.... paint formulas and materal availablity, plastic car materials, application equipment and methodology.... the list of potential variation sources is huge.

But the overwelming issue is, the prototpyes didn't have the colour control you are looking for, at least not after a week or two in the sun, rain, snow, hail, wind, dirt, soot, grime.......

The coatings industry has been pretty well snug with the learning curve of the science of colorimetry, which has been in its prime since the early 30s. It's likely the UP was applying the technology, as roads like the PRR, NYC, and GN were for consistency and the discount in price that came with it. That's why RRs had special paint shops, so the hostler wasn't biting off more than he could chew technically.

Color variations aren't abnormal. Look at BN and WP, which both played with their greens at the start of using the new colors. But once they got the one they like, they're likely not going to change unless they're changing the design as a whole, like NYC did with its grey. Consistency in marketing's important. That's why the Pantone system is so popular with graphic artists.

A train like the COLA ran the same route and its consist was pretty consistent every day, keeping the trains very, very close in tone and hue because they all saw the same weather and sunshine every day together. Yes, weathering effected coatings but the shifting in coating chemistry you're hinting at wouldn't happen in a matter of days or weeks. It would take months and months and months, unless the paint was bad, allowing pretty much the same train set to get the same effect. Locomotives would be more likely to discolor faster, as they would run more often than train sets, and were up front to take the brunt of nature and the elements, not to mention the dirt they kick out themselves.

There's a couple aspects you left off too - finish quality (gloss, flat...), film qualities (what we're looking at now), and distance. If you paint the exact same color in a flat and gloss finish next to each other, as you move from side to side each panel will trade off which appears darker and which lighter. They're still the exact same color straight on. Look at a 3/4 angle photo of a loco which has had nose damage repaired, its nose appears a different shade but its not, the rest of the loco's been matted by dust and masked off in the repaint process. Film quality will heighten this effect, and every other one - Kodachrome will eat blues and Ektachrome reds and these differences will be heightened, and the changeover in these is heightened even more as they make the transition from additive to subtractive color systems in the printing process if you're looking at a book v. a monitor v. a slide. And then when you're looking at a train from a distance, the colors will be blended to a consistent point by your eyes.

But ultimately what you're insinuating is that Kato's selling pre-weathered products, without marketing them as such. So if UP painted cars consistently, should that be what we get, so we can decide whether or not to weather them? The technology to match colors certainly DOES exist today, so there's not much excuse for Kato not to match the Armour yellow between products.

[CBQ Fan]

I got mine yesterday and was running it again this morning.  I am extremely pleased!  A full Kato set complete with car names and numbers.  So the new question is what is the next release going to be!

[Sokramiketes]

Ok, I was trying to correlate some of the consist info that Henry posted on page one and got a little carried away... so I put all my notes down in article form and am linking the consists to the available N scale equipment.

If you have any corrections or additional info with sources, please let me know!

http://www.model160.com/2011/05/09/passenger-consist-a-look-at-ups-city-of-los-angeles-1955-1971/

[sizemore]

I run the Kato COLA with my Athearn Challenger. It looks great.

 ;D
The S.

[mcjaco]

Nice work, Mike. 

It needs more pictures.   

[James Costello]

Ok, I was trying to correlate some of the consist info that Henry posted on page one and got a little carried away... so I put all my notes down in article form and am linking the consists to the available N scale equipment.

If you have any corrections or additional info with sources, please let me know!

http://www.model160.com/2011/05/09/passenger-consist-a-look-at-ups-city-of-los-angeles-1955-1971/

Great work Mike and the COLA isn't even in my era. I hope to see more of this style of article on Model:160 in the future. Any chance for a follow up article to look at whether any of the COLA set is suitable for the current UP business train?

[lashedup]

I'm going to build a heritage fleet out of COLA cars and a few others, so yes, we'll put something together. I'll have to draw a line somewhere in the timeline for the heritage fleet as it keeps evolving. I'm going to build the Howard Fogg power car first and will document what it took to modify it. I'll do an introduction article highlighting the cars that can be built easily and the ones that will be a pain (Inspection cars).

-jamie

[James Costello]

I'm going to build a heritage fleet out of COLA cars and a few others, so yes, we'll put something together. I'll have to draw a line somewhere in the timeline for the heritage fleet as it keeps evolving. I'm going to build the Howard Fogg power car first and will document what it took to modify it. I'll do an introduction article highlighting the cars that can be built easily and the ones that will be a pain (Inspection cars).

-jamie

That would be great Jamie. If you had to fork out for one of the cars in brass, surely the inspection cars would be it....