I've seen a few models of a big boy in grayhound paint and one photo which look like it's in the colors but it's difficult to really tell for sure. Anyone know if a big boy or more was ever in grayhound colors ?
4000 Class engines at UP (Big Boys) were never painted in two-tone gray.
If you've seen them in model form, they are foobs.
UP painted 129 of their passenger steam engines in two-tone gray to match the two-tone gray cars they were pulling on non-Streamliner passenger trains following a Pullman scheme that started in 1941. Initially, in early 1946, the stripes and lettering on the first "greyhound" engines were painted "Silver Grey Enamel", a very pale, non-metallic grey that was essentially white. Service personnel named this the "white scheme". Later, this paint was renamed "Striping Grey Enamel" and according to experts on the subject was identical to the initial "Silver Grey Enamel" and neither was metallic as opposed to most model paint schemes which persist in painting them a metallic aluminum color.
Later in 1946 when UP officially adopted the TTG paint scheme for all passenger steam engines (Challengers, FEF's, Mountains, Pacifics) the lettering and striping were changed to Armour Yellow to match the Streamliner trains these engines occasionally pulled or helped.
On June 2, 1949 the TTG scheme was changed so that striping and lettering were now required to be "Silver Grey Enamel" and the Armour Yellow lettering and stripes were changed back to the "white" scheme.
For those concerned about the years UP's TTG scheme was applied, the Challengers wore it from Dec 1946 to May of 1949, so they never wore the "white scheme" as the change back to the "white scheme" happened in June of 1949, after the Challengers were being repainted to black. FEF's (Northerns) wore TTG from April 1946 to October 1952. Mountains wore TTG from June of 1946 to October 1954, and Pacifics wore TTG from May of 1947 to November 1951.
Big Boys were never painted TTG because they were not passenger locomotives.
FEF's with the later Worthington SA Feedwater Heater improvement, which the Kato FEF-3 represents, with the rectangular box on top of the smokebox in front of the double stack housing, and the pump on the fireman's side of the engine between the 2nd and 3rd drivers was applied first to FEF-3 837 in September 16, 1952 which involved major modifications including extending the smokebox approximately a foot. The shopping was complete in October and the engine was repainted to black. In my research, I have never seen a photo of an FEF wearing TTG and the Worthington SA Feedwater Heater, so the Kato model painted in TTG would not be prototypical unless it was the 8444 or 844 with Armour Yellow lettering and stripes. All other numbers are probably inaccurate, but dates here have been obtained from authors' extensive research with dated photos as official documents dealing with when engine classes were painted have not been found.
So, if you find a dated photo of an FEF with the Worthington SA Feedwater Heater on it that isn't 8444 or 844, painted in TTG, then go with that engine number and please send me a copy of that photo!
Hope that clears things up!
Cheerio!
Bob Gilmore
