Here's a potential head scratcher: What do you think is the oldest surviving paint job in the states? Preserved or otherwise?

Preserved:
Baldwin 60000 at The Franklin in Philadelphia, dating to the 1930s?
Some of the PRR collection at the RRMPA?

Quasi Preserved:
The recently purchased Lehigh Valley SW-1, to be repainted to original colors
Ex D&H RS3u #506, bicentennial scheme on the Tioga Scenic.

Joshua

Do you mean in its actual original paint, never been repainted? Or do you mean in its original color scheme?? If you mean the latter, I suspect some of the denizens of the B&O Museum in Baltimore would qualify as they're in mid-19th century schemes.

I think he means "locomotive that has gone the longest without being repainted"..

As Joshua mentioned,
LV SW1 112 is still wearing her LV paint from 1972:
http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.p ... 716&nseq=1

Tioga Central 506 is still wearing her D&H bicentennial paint from 1976:
http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.p ... 614&nseq=3
(perhaps the oldest paint on an operating diesel)

Its a junker, but here is surviving Penn Central from who knows when..
possibly late 60's:
http://www.railfan.net/railpix/submit/s ... 5-5067.jpg
could be nearly 40 year old paint..

The C&O unit on CSX was recently repainted, so that one is out of the running..

Any BN cascade green from the early 70's still floating around on BNSF?
and there could be some old UP schemes still out there..but its hard to date UP, because they dont change much..

Scot

We have three contenders all sitting in the same yard!
NYLE yard in Gowanda, NY..

First, the Penn Central Alco linked above.

Sitting right next to the Penn Central unit is this Alco S2 still sporting her B&O markings:
http://www.railfan.net/railpix/submit/s ... LE9078.jpg

Since its B&O paint, it must pre-date Chessie System, making it older than 1972.

And third, ex- South Buffalo 77, which could be wearing paint from the 70's:
http://www.railfan.net/railpix/submit/s ... YRHS77.jpg

although unfortunately there is no real way to date the paint from any of those three units..although the B&O paint is certainly Pre-1972. (because of Chessie)

Scot

RMNE's GE 25-tonner from Northeast Utilities/Yankee Gas/Hartford Electric Light Co. (HELCo) appears to still be in her original 1951 paint. Only 560 hours on the loco, and it was apparently stored indoors between uses until transfer to Yankee Gas in Waterbury in the late 70s or so. I can't see any other paint/primer layers other than what looks like the original.

Howard P.
Quarter-Pounder, CT

While #9911A is one of my favorite locos, I would point out that the horizontal nose stripes were repainted from red to the original black fairly recently...

I'm not sure when the 4-8-0's in the former Virginia Scrap Iron & Metal yard in Roanoke were last repainted by the N&W, but it was definitely before they were sold for scrap in 1950. Some of that paint is still there...

B&O EA #51 at the B&O Museum. Now well weathered, and in need of a new (non-CSX or Chessie System) paint job, she right now sports most of her original 1937 livery. At least she is now protected from further deterioration inside the North Car Shop.

Chicago Union Traction 4022 was "restored" in 1934 by Chicago Surface Lines to represent West Chicago Street Railroad 4 and still wears its 1934 paint job today at IRM:

Kind of a different twist on answering the original question: Key System steeple-cab switcher 1001 at WRM still has all its paint jobs. It has never been stripped down to bare metal since it was built in 1910.

Key System 1201, Western Railway Museum's workaday line car, has an elaborate Carter Bros. logo painted on each door. While the interior of the car has been painted since, this area was left unpainted and I believe it is original.

The Battenkill RR has former D&H RS-3 #4116 still in the orange "Greenwich & Johnsonville" paint that was given to it by the D&H in 1972, IIRC.

In the early 80's when the Battenkill RR was formed and took over the old G&J/D&H Washington Branch, the markings were sloppily painted over with BKRR lettering, although the orange paint and the lightning stripe remained. In the 90's, the G&J lettering was restored.

Perhaps the Texas? The following article leads one to believe that it hasn't really been touched since 1936. Whether thats true or not I wouldn't know. I probably haven't seen the locomotive since I was in the 4th grade.

http://www.andrewsraid.com/t_restore.html

As a side note the General was repainted by the L&N around 1963.

http://www.andrewsraid.com/goil.html