B&O Wagontop Paint questions

[SD452XR]

I have a couple B&O wagon top cabooses that I am going to paint. One will be in the red scheme from the 50's and the other the blue scheme found in the early 70's. My question is, what paint is the best match for these two?

Steve

[SkipGear]

[SD452XR]

Tony,

What paint best matches B&O red and B&O blue?

[SkipGear]

I believe the later B&O blue that you need should be close C&O Enchantment blue. I use Polly Scale B&O Blue for most things. I am painting up a Blue version right now for another forum member.

[rogergperkins]

I can tell you from personal experience this week, SCALECOAT II Caboose Red is NOT a good choice.
I made the mistake of painting two JNJ B&O wagontop cabooses with it.
They now have a good primer coat.  Need to get the real red.

[sizemore]

Tony,
I am sure I asked this before whats the significance of the 3 yellow cabs?

Thanks,
The S.

[SkipGear]

I'll have to look it up when I get home. Can't remember off the top of my head.

[rogergperkins]

I tried to recover from painting mine with SCALECOAT II Caboose Red by using a KRYLON aerosol Red Pepper.
It is okay for me (not a rivet counter), but probably looks different with the maroon primer coat covered in Red Pepper.

[SkipGear]

The yellow cabooses were the first bay windows to get the C&O colors. There is one other non wagontop bay window that was also painted in the scheme. Some wooden cabooses were also painted in this scheme. In 1972 the cabooses started to see Chessie paint, that is where I quit researching.

The yellow cabooses were I-5BA's not I-12's. The I-5BA were part of the original wagontop production, rebuilt from older frames. They originally had a 15' bolster span but when rebuilt to the I-5BA in the mid 40's, the trucks were moved to 19' spacing to allow them to be used in pusher service. The short wheelbase cabooses tended to derail easier and were kept out of pusher service.

The main spotting difference in the I-5BA and the I-12 was the end windows. The BA's had the round porthole windows of the original I-5B's where the I-12's had square windows. They are close enough to paint the I-12 as an I-5BA. The truck spacing of the early I-5A (only 1 and it had square windows) and I-5B's makes for a little more effort to make them a stand in. I didn't list the cabooses with the short wheelbase on the original list for that reason.

I-5A - C-2501 (Built June '36) Square windows, built on I-1A C-419 frame that was damaged in a fire
I-5B - C-2502 (Built July '36) Porthole windows, built on I-1A C-400 frame damaged by fire.
I-5B - C-2503 thru C-2507 (Built '39) Porthole windows, built on various damaged I-5 caboose frames.

[SD452XR]

Tony,

What do you recommend for red paint for the B&O?

[SkipGear]

I have used Model Master Insignia Red, Polly Scale Soo Line and Caboose Red. The primer you use has a bigger effect on the color than the actual color.

These two cabooses were both painted with Insignia Red, the left caboose had gray primer, the right caboose used white primer.



The left caboose represents a well weathered caboose while the right is a fresher repaint. If you look at pictures, red is all over the place due to aging and weathering so there is no perfect red for a caboose. Go with what looks good to you.

[rogergperkins]

I have a copy of B&O Cabooses by Dwight Jones which some consider the definitive book on the subject.  He says that B&O used Devil Red* from 1941 to 1969.
 
I like Tony's choice of Model Master Insigna Red and the results with it over a white primer.
To date I have not been able to find that paint in an aerosol, only as bottles.

Thanks to Tony for his example of results based on the color of the primer. 

* I did a Google search for "Devil Red paint" and the color sample I found is not what I expected or my choice for an n-scale caboose.

[sizemore]

Thanks Tony! I'll be sticking with a late red, and a pool service blue!

Thanks,
The S.