We at Wasatch have just finished another 15 inch Cagney restoration. Typically, these locomotives are painted black, which we have come to find is not original. You will notice in these attached photos that the jacket is actually a grayish color. The jacket was originally a form of Russian Iron, which is not a paint color in and of itself. We can no longer get sheets of Russian Iron large enough to do full jackets.

In this case, we took a piece of the Russian Iron and had DuPont look at the color. Using a spectra master color matching computer, we matched a color nearly identical to the original Russian Iron.

The other items on the locomotive such as running boards, cab colors and pilot deck are actually a soft blue, which when done originally was done as a Chroming process, not a paint process. Chroming is done through a dip process. Back in the day, you could order blue chrome, black chrome and I am told a version of red chrome, though I am yet to see a real sample of red chrome.

The locomotive shown will be at Train Festival this next week along with two other Wasatch restorations. We will be giving away items at the show. Please mention that you follow us on RYPN!

Hope to see all of you at the show!

John, interesting about the Russian Iron. I remember reading that Dan Markoff, owner of the Baldwin narrow gauge Eureka used gun bluing to replicate Russian Iron on his locomotive. I remember reading (backed up by my personal knowledge) that the gun bluing, while giving an accurate color read, is very prone to scratching.

I would imagine the paint is a far more durable color for those looking to replicate Russian Iron.

For those of you interested, here is some information I found on an Australian-based web forum for narrow gauge railroads:

http://www.narrowgauge.iform.com.au/russian-iron.html

David,

Not only is the original Russian Iron prone to scratches, it is also prone to oil tarnishing and fading or discoloration, like a gun barrel as well. The paint is very durable, it does not fade all that fast and is very easy to clean, polish and touch-up as needed.

We have an entire roll of original Russian Iron which we had planned on using, however the sheets were just too small to go around the barrel. We noticed as we handled the material how it would show the hand prints and even small scratches as we worked the iron. All in all, the paint was the best way to go.

The link you attached was used a number of times in our discussion with our customer about the "real" color. Even the article shows variations of the what the real color is or should be! For some reason, the link you attached did not pull up the photos....is there a problem? The right side should have photos with the articles.

Thank you,

John, I look forward to visiting with you at TF. Any chance of buying a cab ride in one of the 15 inchers??

Thanks, Ross Rowland

Actually Ross, when people who are interested come to our booth and if everything is running as it should be, I am happy to allow qualified operators a chance at the throttle. In your case, I am willing to make you a fair trade;

You are welcome to ride (run) any one of my Cagney's in exchange for a cab ride on the 614 when you get her done. Ross, I know you plan to get her done and I think this is a more than fair trade......

Deal?

I will look forward to seeing you, Ross,

Always,

John,

That's a fair offer. I"ll look forward to seeing you there! All the best,Ross

This happened to turn up in a link from the Bachmann model web page, and thought it might be of interest here:

http://www.pacificng.com/template.php?p ... /index.htm

Other items linked from that page, one of which is a duplicate or variation of the link in a post above:

http://www.pacificng.com/template.php?p ... swyatt.htm

http://www.pacificng.com/ref/russiairon ... a_Iron.pdf

http://www.pacificng.com/template.php?p ... tpaint.htm

Have fun.

Hi John,

The Cagney looks great! I noticed next to the Cagney in the photos a riveted boiler that appears to be a Swanton Pacific boiler. If so, can you tell us which locomotive it's from and what you're doing with the engine?

Thanks,

-Paul

Looks more like a boiler from a Henschell 0-4-0T or something like that.

Taylor

Nice job on the Cagneys!