So I am watching "Hello Dolly" starring PRR 1223 from Strasburg. She has a pretty bright and multicolored paint scheme with is shown very close up in the film. Is this a special paint for filming? Can it be removed to return to the original paint, or must one re-paint over this movie paint with a completely new paint job?

The answer is "it depends". I've seen temporary paint that came off easily with a washing and "temporary" paint that required a total repaint to cover. Stuff like this is covered in the contract agreement.

"Hello Dolly" https://moreobscuretrainmovies.movie.blog/2021/07/01/hello-dolly-1969/

A loco done up for a Cadbury's commercial here appeared to be painted purple and white stripes, but was really wrapped in stick-on plastic



Back in the old days, getting rid of some silly movie livery did mean a new paint job.

Back in the 1990's, my dad's ex-SP GP9 #5623 was used in a Shell Oil commercial shot by Industrial Light & Magic. They left the unit's Black Widow scheme intact but covered over the SP lettering with a very thin black film. They told my dad that it would come right off without harming the paint but he wisely insisted they put money in the contract to cover repainting the locomotive if necessary. The day they shot the commercial the sun was beating down and the temps rose. He was not happy when they pulled the film off, along with big chunks of his lettering.

We let the ad agents for an automobile company paint a Red Arrow trolley "boy is that blue" for a commercial, using peel-off paint. Maybe without rivets it would peel off but in this case it didn't. There were blue spots at the rivets that led to a repaint.

Phil Mulligan

Some of the "movie paint" was said to be "water soluble." I have seen a wood-sided stock car which was painted with such paint for a movie. It cleaned up relatively well; but, the deep grain of the wood retained some of the color.

The biggest problem Orange Empire (now Southern California) Ry Museum had with "movie paint" was a paint job done for a filming that was done with a water based paint which was latex. It did not clean up. Two Santa Fe cars were involved one got a proper coat of paint, etc. The other was going to get the same, but rust found on the car started a much more involved preparation involving windows and window stills that was never completed for budget reasons. At least this car has had covered storage ever since.

A bit o/t, but there was the Black 5 4-6-0 on the Keighley & Worth Valley line that was used for a Wallpaper adhesive advertisement back in the late 1960's and duly got covered with a floral design of wallpaper.....

https://www.thetelegraphandargus.co.uk/ ... tv-advert/




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Years ago I was involved in film shoot at the Maryland Midland Railway. The director didn't care for the orange band on the MMID's F7, and wanted it painted gray instead. The art department covered over the orange with some sort of rubbery contact cement, then used a paint roller and gray latex over that. We were told that it would peel right off the next day. As I recall, "peel right off" ended up involving two people, a steam cleaner, and a full day of shop time.

- Alan Maples

From Hello Dolly: do you mean the engine or the cars? The cars were permanently painted in that yellow scheme, and many of them remained in that color for 20+ years after - so it was a very well-done permanent job.

The engine.

The mention of "Hello Dolly" makes me remember a story about the horse cars rented from a private collector for the New York parade scene. This was staged in the main entrance area of the 20th Century-Fox studio (now gone) and for years afterwards the sound stages kept the building facades

As I heard (or read) as part of the deal he wanted a good paint job on the cars. The studio painters were reported to be glad to have such an assignment.

The same collector provided the locomotive and car (formerly from Hawaii) that represented an elevated train in the background.