In recent years, reflective stripes have been required on rail equipment to improve visibility to motorists at grade crossings.

The idea isn't really that new, if this ad from Prismo Safety Corporation is any indication.

It's from the 1949 Car Builders' Cyclopedia, and features the Chesapeake & Ohio's first order of Pullman PS-1 box cars, which introduced the "C&O for Progress" herald in January of 1948.

Which brings to mind, is Prismo Safety still around? I found a listing where the company was still in business making things like highway signs, but the address that shows up in a search for the company--301 Penn Street, Huntingdon, Pa.--is a pretty old brick house, certainly not a factory of some sort.

On Utahrails.net.
https://utahrails.net/pdf/UP%20Scotchli ... lished.pdf

Through several interim buyers Prismo is now owned by PPG.

Although the glass bead process was used in paints for street and other retro-reflective signs, currently street signs mainly use pre-made sheeting with micro-prismatic materials.

However pavement markings still use glass beads mixed in the paint, thermoplastic or epoxy and the once placed, additional glass beads are hand thrown onto the top course of the markings.

I don't know how they would have applied the beads on the vertical sides of a railroad car, but on highway markings, the paint is applied by spraying, then the glass beads are spread over the wet paint. They stick to the wet paint, just like sprinkles on an ice cream cone. They aren't in the paint when it's sprayed as far as I know. They may have had some sort of special spray gun to shoot paint and mix in beads at the same time.

My dad was in charge of painting at a state institution here in town. That included markings in parking lots and on curbs at the facility.

After they had did some striping work out there, he brought home a gallon can of those beads... I'd mentioned to him something about using them to "bead blast" something I was working on.

Anyhow, after using some of them for that, I attempted to use the remaining beads to "reflectorize" a large aluminum disc I wanted to use as a switch stand target on my switch stand mailbox holder.

I spray painted the disc a thick, bright Krylon red and shook out a copious amount of those reflectorizing glass beads on to the wet paint... worked like a charm.. they coated the disc well.

Took no time at all for the Krylon to dry, and I mounted my red target on the mast of the stand.

Couldn't wait til nightfall.

Nightfall comes... walk down to the end of the block and shine a big bright spotlight at the target... and all I see is a bright, white disc!!!!! No red at all.

Turns out the beads don't reflect the color they're applied to, the glass itself reflects the color of glass the beads are made of.

Who knew, lol.

An aside... back in the early 70's, whenI was a switchman on the MK&T....I remember being out on the lead, switching, one frigid winter night... was standing there with my little tin Conger lantern watching the cars coming past me as the engine shoved a cut of cars past... checking them against my list... and along comes this Santa Fe boxcar... and as it came into the puny, weak beam of my lantern light... that big Santa Fe herald lit right up in a bright, frosty white. The whole car side was frosty, but the insignia was made even brighter. I'll never forget that.

Railroads don't waste their money with things like that anymore. It'd sure be a nice added touch on rolling stock in a museum setting, though.

I don't know if it was special spray gun or not, but there is a photo in the ad that supposedly shows the beads being sprayed on with some sort of gun. It might be the beads were really small, almost like a powder.

The add does mention that the beads go into a "binder" of some sort, apparently applied over the painted lettering. The binder is sprayed through a "regular" stencil, presumably identical to one used for the lettering, if not actually the same stencil.



Thank you for that remark! It was part of the reason I posted this, as something for a restoration shop to consider as part of the final touch for authenticity!

I was also surprised at the article submitted by Adam Phillips on the use of Scotchlite by Union Pacific and other railroads, and how far back its use goes. One finds all sorts of things out here at RyPN!

Now, how do I replicate this reflective lettering and heraldry in HO scale?

What I get out of it is this: Stencil the car with paint like normal, spray on the clear binder through the stencil over the paint then blow on the bead powder. Seems labor and time intensive. The reason why RRs liked the faster drying lacquers and enamels is that you could get ‘em in and out of the paint shop and back in service quickly. At least in the ‘50s, you could buy reflector paint with the beads already in it. Of course, not much works better than Scotchlite.

The Prismo ad says very clearly that the 'pigmented' binder is sprayed on through the stencil like paint, and the small glass spheres are sprayed on while the binder is still tacky, in a separate step as indicated above (probably like sand through a gun). Full drying time is about 8 hours.

So while it is a two-step process, the only 'masked' step is to spray color directly through the stencil, which is then removed and the glass beads only stick to the 'wet paint'.