A Prototype for Sloppy Decaling

[Maletrain]

The B&O group.io list just had some posts of real locos with some way-off painting.

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I wouldn't model this intentionally.  But, maybe it would be OK to run an "oops" for a while, with the excuse that the foreman fired the painter and the hosler needed an engine.

[davefoxx]

I find these “mistakes” humorous, but I always feel like recreating the errors just looks like sloppy modeling.  If you go there, keep the proto photo handy!   

DFF

[Dave V]

I find these “mistakes” humorous, but I always feel like recreating the errors just looks like sloppy modeling.  If you go there, keep the proto photo handy!   

DFF

This. I don’t think the Rio Grande Southern ever applied a stencil straight after about 1892. But I do because I don’t want to look like even more of a hack than I already do!

[dem34]

Don't think a single E unit in Penn Central Commuter service was free from similar weird oopsies.

Like this one. Where all 3 units have various states of misaligned panels under the worm logo. Some a bit worse than others.

[basementcalling]

Interesting but agreed that modeling the typical vs the exceptional gives a better overall impression. Make your modeling exceptional skill wise, but reflect the ordinary for it to convey realism.

[Maletrain]

The story emerging for the B&O units is that they were C&O units that were assigned to B&O, and apparently, whoever did the repainting lined up the bottom of the "B" so that it made a horizontal line with the bottom of the "&" that were left over from "C&O".  (The correct B&O logo of that period had the B, & and O with their bottoms aligned, while the C&O had the smaller & raised off the line to be more centered in height of the C and O.)  There are emerging pictures of lots of units with different numbers but that same screwy alignment.  So, it looks like a mental "oops" rather than a mechanical "oops".

Thank goodness that is out of my modeling era!

[dem34]

Interesting but agreed that modeling the typical vs the exceptional gives a better overall impression. Make your modeling exceptional skill wise, but reflect the ordinary for it to convey realism.

Though it is funny when you get a case of sloppy being the typical. I once saw somebody blow up on Reddit about wanting a refund for a small fleet of Intermountain boxcars the guy pre-ordered due to a "Sloppy Paintjob"

Paint job in question being that like the prototype the cars were all painted with a good dusting of overspray bleeding onto the roof. As was typical of the type.

[Maletrain]

And here is yet another type of lettering goof.  This time, somebody cocked the & so that the top and bottom loops of the left side are on a vertical line.
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Folks on the B&O board are speculating that these locos were repainted by C&O before delivery to B&O, and that these errors might be what we today call "micro-aggressions".

Getting even more glad that is not my era.

[learmoia]

Whats the deal with those handrails? Haven't seen anything like that before..
Here is another shot of the same unit (opposite side)..
Here the B&O is off center and spaced differently.
(and extra handrails removed-- or not yet added)











EDIT: Can anyone else see the image links?  They won't load for me..

~Ian

[Maletrain]

From what I see posted on the B&O group, those extra rails on the cab ends of the switchers are a C&O innovation, added before those units were reassigned to the B&O.

[nickelplate759]

If the extra railing you are referring to is at the cab end of those switchers, those are safety cages meant to protect someone from falling from the raised platform by the door onto the tracks.   NKP had them too.