Hooker Tank Cars

[Curtis Kyger]

What time era did Hooker paint their tank cars orange verses black? Which paint scheme proceeded the other?

[lock4244]

From what I've seen online, HOKX marked cars built in 1978 were delivered in gray. A 1956 built car was orange. That's a big gap, but it's a start.

[Ed Kapuscinski]

I can't give you a direct answer, but I CAN highly recommend using Bluford shops railroad info timeline, in conjunction with stuff like ACI labels to figure it out: https://www.bluford-shops.com/bluford_93_025.htm

[thomasjmdavis]

The order of paint schemes is, I believe, black, orange, gray.  Here is a 1939 photo in black-

On looking at the photo blown up on my monitor, I am going to take back my original thought.  The photo actually shows two colors- which in the black and white photo appear black (dome and middle band) and dark gray ( the rest of the tank- which I originally thought was also black).  But the second color could be almost anything, depending on the lighting and particular film used. Could it be orange? (It seems like orange should appear lighter than that, but it is an 86 year old photo).

http://resincarworks.com/images/kit1-05_HOKX217.jpg

The orange scheme has been a 'darling' of model railroad manufacturers and importers since probably a week after it first appeared in real life.  Just about every tank prototype ever made to scale has appeared in the orange hooker scheme, regardless of accuracy.