The restoration of B&OCT bobber caboose #C1735 is not the only project that the Monticello Railway Museum has done recently. MRM member Dennis Slone send me this photo of the repainting of Wabash business car number 6. Another wonderful job!


Les

Indeed. Interesting lighting arrangement on the platform as well.

I'd be keenly interested in knowing where he got his paint match. I'm early in the planning stage to paint Wabash Pullman sleeper "Emerald Vale". The blue/silver is the most likely scheme. Either way I want to collect matches for the blue.

Robert -

Kent McClure is the CMO at MRM and probably was the guy who spearheaded the painting of Wabash number 6.

Les

Backup headlight below, red oscillating light (activated by emergency brake application) above. There are also track inspection lights under the steps, hard to see in the photo. All lights work, btw. Car is a true "museum piece" as nearly everything on/in it remains as it was when Wabash sold the car. Its fine condition is due to being kept indoors for most of its life as a private car, and MRM is keeping it inside, too.

As to the other poster's query about Wabash Blue paint, it's a case of there being no such thing as "the" color - the road used several different shades over time. Axalta Imron 3.5 was used for the blue on Business Car 6, mixed to MRM's order by Kelly Industrial Coatings of Waukesha, WI.

I can further elaborate on the shade of blue used on Wabash #6. In our restoration of Wabash F7 #1189, back in 1992, I took a Wabash painting print for said locos in to a local DuPont jobber. The print related all the Dulux codes used on these locos at the time. Of all the codes on the print, the blue, #83-5370 was still an active fleet color, and available. All the other colors were no longer available. I had a quart of said blue mixed up, and it was sent off to the DuPont color lab for matching into their 326 line of Imron at the time. This is what we used on our F7, #1189. This is also the same blue used on the NS Heritage unit #1070. MRM also provided the matches for the gray, silver, gold and red.

MRM also has in it's collection, the logo from one of the smoke lifters from one of the Hudsons built at Decatur, IL. These locos were also blue, and after careful cleaning of one corner of the logo plate, the blue on it is a near match for the above 5370.

We found two different blues on Wabash #6. The later, lighter blue used with the silver roof/underbody period, and a darker blue under that. The lighter blue should be DuPont's 83-9709. We were able to lift a good sized sample of it, clean it up and send it to Kelly Industrial Coatings for matching.

Since we wanted to represent the earlier, black roof/underbody, we chose to use the darker blue, as is used on 1189. Here are two photos of the car, both taken with the same camera, within seconds of each other, simply taking two steps over and taking another shot. It clearly shows why you can't used color photos for your basis in determining paint colors.

We've found four different blues on our un-restored Wabash Parlor car City of Decatur. One is a VERY dark blue, there is a blue that is a dead ringer for the above 5370, then two other, lighter shades of blue. Since the Wabash paint shop was doing their own mixing at the time, I'm willing to bet, as Peter alluded to, there wasn't a very tight control of the blues coming out of the paint shop. We also have an anecdotal report by a long retired Wabash trainman who hired out in 1946, who noted while working that cars shopped by Pullman always came back in a much darker blue than those painted at the Decatur shops. He also related that to him, the Wabash Pacific locos were a much darker blue than the Hudsons.

Kent

Very impressive and I do enjoy seeing a great piece of Wabash history saved.

Beautiful car and good description on the paint matching. I appreciate the extra information so that people can also learn about how others do this stuff.

Is the rear steam connector missing or was there none on that end? Curious also about the small chains which are obviously not safety chains.

In regard to the steam connector, it was off at that moment as the 2" pipe was snapped off at a 45 deg. fitting back under the platform. Had to re-thread the main steam conduit under the car, then reinstall the connector/valve assembly. Yes, it is fixed now. From other damage, not so visible in the photo, it appears there was a crossed drawbar incident at some point, as we also had to straighten the lock lifter on the coupler, and the steam valve operating linkage to make them functional again.

The small chains are merely hanger chains for the brake pipe and signal hoses to keep them up out of the dirt while in service. If you look closely you can see the glad hand adapters at the ends of the chains.

The car does have safety chains, as you can see the clevises attached to the car ends, but the chains themselves are not currently on the car.

Kent

Congratulations. Really nice job, even if it is blue :-)

In one of those pictures it looks white and gold! *ducks and runs*

Very, very nice job by Kent and the guys/gals at the Monticello. We can debate all the live-long day what "Wabash Blue" looks like, but in my humble opinion we don't have to divide over it. My personal opinion is that the blue looks good on the car!

Hey Robert Macdowell, I thought the Emerald Vale had gone to the Ann Arbor in the MOW Dept., but I had no idea it'd been saved. That is certainly great news!


James Holzmeier

The permanently mounted backup headlamp is a somewhat unusual feature by any measure.

I assume this project has the blessing of the SMRS board?