Intermountain Seaboard System SD-45-2 ?

[Atlanticflier]

  urrr.....

I've just received a Intermountain SBD SD-45-2 and the Gray color looks all wrong. Has any one else seen this loco in person. The gray is not French Gray. It is much too light.
How could they have gotten the base color so wrong.   urrrr.......

I checked it and the Atlas U23b against an official SBD paint chip. The IMR unit is way too light in color. The Atlas unit is acceptable.

Now what do I do with the SD-45-2 ?.......

[wcfn100]

How could they make the DM&IR handrails yellow (the letering would have been wrong too except for a certain phone call)?  It's just IM's quirky way.

Jason

[wm3798]

A paper weight?  A door stop?

Lee

[Ryan87]

A paper weight?  A door stop?
Lee

Frame's too light 

[Robbman]

Send it to me so I can create a correct SD45-2 bodyshell...

[bobcat]

I had the same problem a year or so ago with a Susie Q tunnel motor. The yellow was soooo wrong, that no amount of weathering could help it. Even the blue on the CSX bright future models good either. It makes me fear what IM is going to do with SD40-2s. Having a long awaited loco come and be wrong is not the answer. I don't have the talents of others here to bash and paint them correctly.

As for the Susie Q, Chuck was able to send it back to IM.

[Nato]

  Their Shasta Daylight passenger cars were the wrong shade of red & orange, I'am still waiting on reruns to get some. They did a nice model of Cotton Belt's only FP-7 diesel which was painted Daylight with a silver roof. I ordered one for it's uniqueness, very disappointing ,the red was a Salmon-Pinkish color, orange is pretty much ok. Then we have the recient release of 6-4-4 sleepers in Sunset scheme letter boards should be Scarlett (don't call it red) but they are definately more orange than red color. Some times IM gets it right,but not always. Another good example, nose top anti-glare pannels on UP F units should be flat dark green, some were later gray. Im F-3's and F-7's have black ones.                             Nate Goodman (Nato).

[asarge]

I used to work in downtown Marietta Georgia in the mid-80's and spent alot of time railfanning the ex-L&N W&A and K&A subsa north out of Atlanta and the Seaboard System sure seemed to use different shades of gray. It looked to me like quite a few loco's were painted in a lighter gray more like the original L&N gray rather than the darker Family Lines Gray. I used to wondered if this was bacuase they had alot of leftover L&N gray and decided to use that up. I couldn't tell you offhand what units had what scheme as it didn;t matter that much at the time, but there definately appeared to be multiple shades of gray.

[SirTainly]

I think the answer is that IM does not employ people who are interested in model trains, whereas Atlas does.

[oakcreekco]

"What to do" with them.

Well, I got rid of all my IM Tunnel Motors. Just sick and tired of having them under my roof.

IMO, Sir hit the nail on the head.

[u18b]

Is it at least accurate for   *faded*   SBD paint?

As in,  if you are a CSX modeler, then you really don't want (or at least I don't want) true French Gray.

French Gray has a slightly brown hue to it.  But when it fades, the brown-ness drops out.

Unless you model B36-7s on the early days of CSX, then almost all SBD locos were faded.

So it's sort of like the old Pennsy green.  There's black/green.  And then there's that swamp water green that the locos fade to.  I've seen manufacturers make paint in both colors.

Is that What IM used?

But you are correct, Atlas does a good job of getting the unfaded colors correct (and Family Lines too).

[Atlanticflier]

Yes, I see that it could be used for a faded SBD loco, with lots of weathering. For those who are modeling the mid 80's(ish) an accurate SBD color would have been nice.

It appears form some photo research that the ex-L&N gray locos seem to fade lighter, whereas the ex SCL(black) and FLS(gray) locos fade in a different manner, maintaining  a different hue/shade. Makes sense.

I've spent days railfanning in Jacksonville and the surounding areas, engine shops, etc, and while the Very faded locos certainly varried, the IMR gray is just wrong (IMO) for an SBD loco, unless sold as weathered.

I'll see what I can do with it to make it 'fit' better.

AND I did not even mention the different SBD Yellows that manufacturers are using. Strange that the HMA or NMRA does not Lead a program on proper colors for All manufacturers to use. Most colors can be crossed to a PMS number that is constant, for example, all SBD locos should have the same Yellow logo lettering. An SBD color chip ( from ACL/SAL Historical) can be crossed to a PMS number and the color will always be the same (pending factory quality control, of course). 

Theory ? - well it happens in other industries all the time - why not in the model railroad industry ??

make one wonder.......

[CVSNE]

I think the answer is that IM does not employ people who are interested in model trains, whereas Atlas does.

No, that's not it.

Years ago IM had a Rock Island HO scale F unit released with a faded red, almost pink color, when the CRIP paint diagram called out a paint number that matched Santa Fe Warbonnet red - a color IMR had done a good job matchin). What happened? They used pictures from RMC that showed a prototype with either the slide faded, the printing in the magazine was off, or the colors were right and the prototype in the pics were faded.

Could never get the leadership to admit the color was "wrong" -

I have no way of knowing this, but I suspect this is the same issue here. I think the answer is likely that whoever approved the paint sample looked at a color guide or online photo of a faded, older unit.

[SirTainly]

No, that's not it.

I refer the Right Honourable Gentleman to his comments on the Scotty Mason show.

[CVSNE]

No, that's not it.

I refer the Right Honourable Gentleman to his comments on the Scotty Mason show.

Oh, I stand by the statement . . . but the issue is not whether they care or not, the issue is not knowing where to look . . . and the arrogance to refuse to ask for assistance before, instead of after, the fact.  ;D