MTL Gulf tank car question....

[johnb]

Does anyone know why these cars have different color lettering?

[bbussey]

I know the orange lettered car existed, albeit an 8,000 gallon capacity.

[Gozer the Gozerian]

I can't locate anything other than the fact that they were made by different factories at about the same time.  Otherwise they are similar in just about every way.

[johnb]

It could be as simple as why the white SPFE reefers have different color SP logos....they used what ever  paint was laying around

[CBQ Fan]

Where would these have been commonly seen? And when?

[PGE_Modeller]

I can't locate anything other than the fact that they were made by different factories at about the same time.  Otherwise they are similar in just about every way.

I know tank cars were not required to be reweighed on a regular basis as their billing was by gallonage rather than net weight, but these two cars show an 11 year difference in stencilling:  14132 (orange "Gulf") was weighed in 11-44 while 14415 (yellow "Gulf") was weighed 11 years earlier (11-33).  They were most likely weighed at the time of a major shopping which "might" have included re-painting.  If the paint schemes are based on prototype photographs (althouigh colour photography in 1933 would be pretty rare), it would be very interesting to see if a "repacked" stencil was readable as that would narrow down the time frame of the schemes.  This approach has been very helpful for me in determining when a particular paint scheme on British American Oil Company (BAOX) tank cars was in use.  In particular, a stencil on the centre sill of BAOX 353 that reads "RPKD 3 4 52" pretty much assures me that a very attractive green/gray/black scheme was in use earlier than my Sept 1952 modelling period while a Feb 1954 builder's photo of BAOX 833 in the same scheme confirms it lasted at least that long.

Cheers,

[peteski]

And here I thought that the yellow scheme was just faded orange. 

[bbussey]

And here I thought that the yellow scheme was just faded orange. 

Which it very well could be.

[C855B]

Yeah, but very little fades that evenly. Could be reverse-engineering of a faded orange in a photograph, with misinterpretation that it was originally a darker yellow.

That said... yellows are funny. We have a BN caboose at our museum in need of paint, but no budget for it. The curator doesn't believe me when I tell her the cream color on the ends used to be a bright in-your-face YELLOW(!!!). The yellow faded very evenly, and only on the backside of paint chips can you see the original color.

[johnb]

Either way, i am getting them for my 1952-1960 era layout

[u36b]

Both cars are shown in "Tank Car Color Guide Volume 1" page 18:
!4132 was photographed on March 24, 1967 - new (rw?) 8-44, orange "Gulf"
14415  was photographed on January 1969 - new (rw?) 8-33 yellow "Gulf"
The next page shows two different early 70's "Gulf" cars dating from the 30's - one with small yellow "Gulf" and the second with orange "Gulf"

hope it helps

[wcfn100]

The tank car book clearly shows the two different lettering colors, but I don't know how someone looked at those pictures and thought it was yellow.    It's still orange albeit much lighter.

Either way, the car is totally wrong as usual for this model.  C'mon MTL, let's bury some of these 30 year old unprototypical body styles.  A 50's built 8,000 or 10,000 gallon welded car with and without platforms could yield a lot of prototypical schemes.


Jason