Modeling the SP 6-6-4s for the West Coast and Owl (Part 1) - Let There Be Rainbow Consists

While I understand most of us think of passenger trains of the SP as the nice ordered consists with striking appearances of a solid trainsets of Red and Orange Daylight cars behind a GS-4, a fog-cloaked two-tone gray Lark slipping in the early morning along the coast, or a brilliant Yellow and Gray consist flashing by on the Overland Route...  But, what about the other SP trains in the early 1950s which started picking up extra cars, still painted in "Premier Train" schemes?

The History

One of the hidden surprises in digging in more accurately modeling my passenger consists is that the SP's fleet of 6-6-4s was one of the largest groups of streamlined or light-weight sleepers that they had as of mid-late 1950, which also lost their regular assignment and became 'extra'.  Primarily, this was due to the two new versions of Pullman's standard 10-6 and 10-6 blunt-end sleepers which were displacing the 6-6-4 sleepers in middle of 1950.

Mid-1950 through 1953 era 6-6-4 options in the form of SP 9163, 9152, and 'Golden Plain'.

This change pulled the four 6-6-4s completely from the Lark service and released at least two or three of the 6-6-4s from the regular Golden State assignments.  The remaining 6-6-4s were then focused onto the SF Overland/City of San Francisco pool based out of Oakland/Richmond and the Golden State Limited, based out of Los Angeles.

While I'll cover the West Coast's consist in a dedicated blog-post soon, so I'll sum it up here by just saying that the otherwise fairly dull SP Dark Olive Green and Pullman Green consists of Owl and West Coast, can have a varied dash of color added by mixing up which 6-6-4 was assigned on a given day.  The West Coast starts off being more colorful head-end from the UP/GN/NP connecting baggage cars from Seattle and Portland to Los Angeles, but also on the rear-end from August 1950 until early 1954 used the two ex-CoSF 10-5s still painted in SP yellow and gray until 1954 when they both went to TTG, and a mix of 6-6-4s which we'll look at here.

SP 9163 - West Coast's 'Regular' TTG 6-6-4

One of the Lark assigned 6-6-4s was assigned regularly to the West Coast, while the other three went to the SF Overland pool.  This car was the SP 9163, which kept the Two Tone Gray scheme, but lost the Lark train logo on the sides.  I'm not sure of the other three cars assigned to the SF Overland, if the received a new Overland logo or if they also dropped back to the general service reporting marks only.

SP 9163, the TTG 'general service' 6-6-4, assigned to the West Coast in 1950.

About ten of years ago, I picked up a TTG Pullman car, repainted the letterboard and decalled it for Southern Pacific, but left off the Lark train logo, making my SP 9163.  This car's conversion from 1942 as-built TTG "western" Pullman scheme was fairly simple to do.  I removed the PULLMAN letterboard pad printing with my fiberglass brush and also painted on the short bit of SP Dark Lark Gray past the vestibule doors to match photos.  This scheme didn't have the lower skirting painted black, but stayed lighter Lark Gray. 

These cars also did not loose their skirting for a couple more years.  I probably could have gone with full-width diaphragms, but as the SP 9163 was regularly removed from the 'streamlined' consists, I'm saving the money and modeling this car with the narrow stock diaphragms.

I still need to make a pass over this car again to put in the window shades and grab irons, etc.  I may also fit the car with a OwlMtModels illuminated tailgate marker.

SP 'Golden Plain' - West Coast's 1947 'Golden State'-Scheme 6-6-4

A number of years ago I also planned to make several Golden State 6-6-4s, but I started those cars with Walthers cars that didn't have full skirting, but the highly cut back version of the later eras.

SP "Golden Plain" 6-6-4 repainted into Golden State colors for my 1950 assignments.

My newer research has shown that they really didn't loose their skirting while painted in the Red/Silver Golden State 1947 scheme.  This additional research has thus pushed me to acquire another Walthers 6-6-4 with full skirts to finish as a Golden State 6-6-4 with skirting in the 1947 Red & Silver scheme, to provide another option for my West Coast or Owl assignments.

This combination of 6-6-4s in the SP's system naturally provided the West Coast as the 'shuttle service' to move 'shop cars' back and forth from Sacramento General Shops to Los Angeles, whenever a Golden State car needed to be shopped or returned to pool based out of LA.

SP "Golden Plain" was one of the three cars fitted with the lit tail-sign boxes, which were covered over in 1950 when the new blunt-end 10-6s were assigned to the Golden State.

I've been working on building the Golden State 6-6-4 sleeper (Part 1), "Golden Plain".  So far some bumps, but I'm having fun with this car.  I've been wanting to get one of these Golden State 1947-scheme cars for about 20 years now.  The "Golden Plain" is now into 'finishing' phase, detailing and grab irons being fitted.  Also I need to figure out where my red TCY full-width diaphragms went to... as I need one to fit to the vestibule-end of the car.  As the blind-end of the car was only fitted with narrow diaphragms due to the planned operation on the rear of the consists with the tail-signs.

Yellow Too? - Another Surprising West Coast Option for SP 6-6-4

While researching the SP 9200 side of the West Coast modeling project, I found a photo of it on Nov 4, 1951 when a photographer captured the West Coast in Sacramento's platform laying over.  The SP 9200 wasn't with the expected TTG 9163 or a Golden State car, but in company of a very much yellow 6-6-4!! - Doing a bit of digging, this car has to be either SP 9152 or 9155, which were painted yellow in 4/50 and 8/47 respectively.  This shows that they certainly were mixing the cars around as early as 1951.  Also of interest is that the photo was taken on November 4, 1951, only the 4th day of operating with the 10-5 on the rear of No.60.  However, the photo shows the 10-5 on the east end of the consist at Sacramento, on the curved end of the platform.  Which suggests that it was actually running the other way than what the consist shows?

As my decals seem to be showing a little damage, I could change them from a '6' to a '5', making the SP 9162 into the 9152.

This revelation makes me want to retouch my yellow SP 6-6-4 to be one of these two cars, either SP 9152 or 9155, as that could mix another color car into my West Coast consists options.  Athough with the 9200, this would make two yellow cars at the rear of the train..  The other SP 6-6-4s in the Overland pool that eventually were painted yellow didn't happen until 1953-55, so they really should still be TTG in the 1950-53 era I want to model.

Post June 1953 Golden State 6-6-4s

The SP 9160 was the first 6-6-4 repainted in June '53 to the Sunset Limited-style Golden State scheme.

For those wanting to model a bit later, in June and October 1953 the SP 9160 (ex-Golden Creek) and 9157 (ex-Golden Valley) respectively were the first 6-6-4s repainted into the new Russell ordered 'Sunset Limited- Style' or 'Simulated Stainless Steel" (SSS) Golden State scheme.  The other three cars were not repainted into this scheme until 1955, so there was quite an overlap of both the "GS Red" and GS SSS painted cars.

In Closing

To wrap this exercise up... One of the points I'd like to drive home with this post is that some SP trains will allow for multiple 'correct' cars to be modeled and swapped around to change the look of the train.

Mix of SP's pool of 'extra' 6-6-4s in the early 1950s, showing off TTG, 1953 Golden State Silver/red (SSS GS), 'Overland' Yellow/Gray, and 1947 Golden State 'Red' (GSR) schemes..

The SP did have plenty of extra 6-6-4s from mid-1950 into 1953 to cover the three regular assignments on the Owl (one car only, alternated with HW 8-5 sleeper in the other consist) and West Coast (two cars, one per consist).  The SP may have also had sufficient extra cars to allow several to be leased back into the Pullman Pool for general assignments.

Jason Hill

Related Articles:

SP 'Golden Plain' 6-6-4, 1947 Golden State Red scheme

Modeling SP Golden Plain, a 'Golden State' 6-6-4 (Part 1) - Painting & Decaling

Santa Fe's "Surprise Valley" 6-6-4, 1947 'Shadowline' scheme

SFE "Surprise Valley" Pullman 6-6-4 Shadowline Sleeper (Part 1) - Painting & Decaling Right Side

Santa Fe's "Chama Valley" 6-6-4, 1951-53 'Two Tone Gray' scheme

SFE "Chama Valley" Pullman 6-6-4 "Two Tone Gray" - circa 1951-1960, deskirted ~1952/53+ era.  (I've not made a post solely on this version yet)

MoPac "Eagle River" 6-6-4, 1949-1954 "The Eagle" scheme

Modeling MoPac "Eagle River" Pullman 6-6-4 (Part 4) - The Blue and the Gray... (Again)

Modeling SP Golden Plain, a 'Golden State' 6-6-4 (Part 1) - Painting & Decaling

This post will be my first post on modeling the sleepers for the West Coast (Nos.59/60) more accurately.  I've not yet published my 'Modeling the West Coast' series like I did on the Owl 10 years ago, but it's in the works, but that will be it's own multi-post series.  I may first post an article just on the West Coast's sleepers that I'm planning to model for the 1950-1953 era shortly.  I should note that in 1951, the Owl (Nos.57/58) was also assigned one SP 6-6-4 on alternating days with a HW 8-5 working the other direction, so this car could also be seen in service on the Owl during my modeling era too.

SP Golden State 6-6-4 History

The SP ordered six 6-6-4 Pullman Sleepers for assignment to the Two-Tone Gray Golden State in 1942. 

My fully decaled and finished Walthers SP "Golden Plain", ex-PC 509, future SP 9159 in 1955.

These six cars were repainted into the new Red & Silver scheme for the Golden State in December 1947.  The Pullman owned PC 510 'Golden Cloud' was destroyed on the MoPac New Years Eve, 1948, only a few weeks after being repainted.

These were named: PC 507 "Golden Valley" (SP 9157), PC 508 "Golden Sea" (SP 9158), PC 509 "Golden Plain" (SP 9159), PC 511 "Golden Creek" (SP 9160), and PC 512 "Golden Canyon" (SP 9161).  The remaining five cars lasted to the acquisition by the Southern Pacific on Dec 31, 1948 from the Pullman Standard Company.

The small "PULLMAN" lettering at the ends of the letterboard were changed to "SOUTHERN PACIFIC" by request of the SP before they took ownership because the Rock Island's cars were already displaying the cars in the train that were theirs on lease from Pullman.  Even the railroads can't make everyone happy all the time.

SP 9160, ex-Golden Creek, after repainting into the Sunset Limited-style version of the Golden State scheme in June 1953.  This car is good to use for June 1953+ era consists, such as my Owl or later West Coast.

Three of these cars were given their SP numbers when changed to the Silver & Red Golden State scheme in 1953, but SP 9157 (G. Valley) and 9159 (G. Plain) were finally repainted in 1955 to the new scheme, which is nice to know if you want to model the 1947 GSR scheme as late as possible.

The three cars PC 507, 508, & 509 were fitted with two tail-sign boxes for rear-end service.  One box was on each side of the blind-end narrow diaphragm, much like the Lark's 13-DBR sleepers, except the Lark cars had full-width diaphragms on both ends.  The three SP 6-6-4s were fitted with narrow diaphragms on the blind-end with the signs.  In 1950, the Rock Island and SP put new tail-cars into service, two "blunt-end" 10-6s for the SP and three round-end observations for the Rock Island, resulting in the 6-6-4s equipped for end-of-train service into general service.

As I plan to model the 'Golden Plain', it will have these boxes in place, but plated over.

Prepping the Model

Stock D&RGW 6-6-4 out of the box.

I ended up disassembing the whole model, more so than I do on my other projects, because for some reason this DRGW 6-6-4 was GLUED together.  Even the windows and vestibule interior wall were glued in.  Sigh...

At least I got it all a part.  The only models that I've dealt with that I've taken this far apart were the Undecorated Walthers models I've started with, namely the Santa Fe 'Surprise Valley' and the MoPac 'Eagle River', both other 6-6-4s.  If I'd thought this one would have been this much trouble, I would have hunted down another undec model!

Bolster Changes

Modifications made to the Walthers LW Pullman carbody.

With the model disassembled, I took this opertunity to modify the Walthers body bolster to my standard, aka, removing the body portion of the bolster, which catches on the brake cylinders and screws on the top of the trucks.  The stamped steel power-pickups are also stripped out and removed entirely.  This allows the carbody to sit down properly on the center bolster ring and brings the car's ride height down to a reasonable level.

Painting Prep

I really should have started by removing ALL of the Walthers pad-printed lettering and striping.  This bit me later as the paint thinner reacts with the pad-printing ink and causes it to 'pucker', ruining the paint above it.  This led to a LOT of color-sanding to remove all the new paint, and then the pad printing.

But, once the base layers of paint laid down on the model cleanly, I painted the 'red' with a lightened shade compared to the Daylight Red that is specified.  I want to have the look of a car that's been in service in the southern California/Arizona/New Mexico sun for a couple years, despite the SP's best efforts to keep the cars looking their best.  I've heard this color described as 'salmon' when it was really fading and looking bad.  

I've modeled my SP 2428 as it would have looked freshly out-shopped in October 1952 from Sacramento Shops as the last SP car to be painted in the red & silver Golden State scheme.

I don't want it that bad on the 'Golden Plain'.. just not as 'pristine' as my SP 2428 model, which is Athearn's stock 'Daylight Red' paint and matches pretty well with my MTH Daylight painted cars and StarBrand's Daylight Red.

Painting Tamyia Gloss Aluminum onto masked car sides.  Ends also painted.

I masked off the to shoot the lower body at the very bottom of the windows.  The first round I shot the side panels with my preferred Tamyia 'Gloss Aluminum' and then switched the masking to the lower part of the body.  Both the StarBrand and the Tamyia held the masking tape perfectly!  No pealing up of any portions of the paint job.

Completed Red/Aluminum paint scheme on Walthers 6-6-4 sides.

I took Star Brand SP Daylight Red and mixed in a 'dash' of SP Scarlet Red, I'm guessing it was upto about 70-80% Scarlet, which brings some slight brightening and maybe a slight bit of orange hue into the paint.  I was aiming for about 40%, but I'm happy with the results.  A sister car was painted as an experiment with nearly straight SP Scarlet, and it looks nearly identical to the Golden Plain, so I guess I used much more Scarlet than I thought.  

Color comparison: SP 2428 "Daylight Red" (left) vs my custom "Golden State" light fade shade on the 6-6-4's roof (right).

The whole roof was shot with this red mix.  I'm keeping some extra paint to touch up the roof details, like the air conditioning lift handles and the roof ladder rest grab irons.

Decalling

The decals that I have are probably 6-8 years old since I got them, I tested a small section of the silver end strip, and it broke up.  So I did a application of the MicroScale Liquid Decal Film.  This has to be put on in a 'one-shot' deal and then you wait 15 minutes.  One section I didn't wait and it disolved the silver stripe section, thankfully I limited my application of this fluid to only a pair of "GOLDEN STATE" and two pairs of the small "SOUTHERN PACIFIC" lettering each time.

SOUTHERN PACIFIC names painted on the letterboard at the car's ends.

I was able to use the four small silver strips, but I decided there was no way that I was going to be able to get a good transfer out of the larger silver section for the center letterboard "GOLDEN STATE".  So I'll paint it!

Aluminum Letterboard painted and masking removed.

This was probably the most time consuming portion of the painting and lettering work.  I used my calipers to measure and insure that the masking was set up the correct distances from the roof line.  The car-side was removed from the body during this whole phase.  Then I used a piece of scrap center silver strip decal, cut off so I could check the width of the stripe against my masked area.

A in-process photo I shot when I'd just shot the second car side's Aluminum Letterboard block, with the completed first side that I shot in foreground.

The two strips of Tamyia masking tape where then closed off at the ends with a vertical piece where I wanted the stripes to end.  I did one side of the car at a time.  Next, I set up a larger masking unit with blue-tape and paper to keep the rest of the car-side from catching any stray silver paint.  Once the first side was painted, I salvaged all of the masking materials and repositioned it on the second car-side.  Then shot that side.  It's hot summer weather here in Nevada, so after about 5-10 minutes, I can pull the masking off before it sets too hard onto the body paint work.

Completed decals on the center of the car.

The center letterboard block of aluminum paint looks very good.  I'm rather temped to use this method again if I need to do more of these cars.

Tail Sign Boxes & Details

I scratch built the tail-sign boxes out of styrene strip, 0.060" thick x 0.250", then cut off at 0.190", which I scaled off a photo, where I could see the end-frame of the car which was the same height as the box.  The height I figure at about 0.460" from the upper part of the bottom notch in the end frame.

The upper box should be about 0.200" tall and 0.125" wide.  I fabricated these out of the same strip styrene and cut the two blocks down to size with my chisel blade.

Train Logo sign boxes fashioned and installed on my 6-6-4's blind end.

Tamyia Liquid Plastic Glue is used to glue the four boxes into place.  I used a scrap piece of 0.060" to space the smaller upper boxes and placed them with their outer edge about 0.120" by eye from the outer edge of the end of the car.

Rear-end of the 'Golden Plain' with the tail-sign boxes in place.

All four boxes were colored using a Silver Sharpe Marker.  I also did a bit on the striker surface of the diaphragm with a black marker, representing the grease common on the strikers, and then I went over that with the Silver Sharpe again to back off this coloring, as this was the rear-end of the Golden State, but in West Coast service it will be mid-train, as the SP seemed to run the two sleepers with their blind-ends towards one another.  I may dry brush a little newer rust on the striker to show a little wear since the arrival of the new SP 10-6 Blunt-End tail cars for the Golden State.

In Closing

Right side of my painted and decalled SP 'Golden Plain' 6-6-4 sleeper.

I still need to drill and mount all the Walthers detail grabs and parts, then touch-up those parts.  The vestibule-end of the car also needs a Full-Width Diaphragm to be installed.  The car will get red drift-card window shades and some soot weathering on the upper portions of the roof, as I've seen on photos of other Golden State cars in this scheme around the same era as I model, but we'll get to that in Part 2.

Jason Hill

Related Articles:

Owl Nos.57/58

SP 4258 No58 Arriving LAUPT - John Shaw Photo -James Salkeld Collection

Modeling the Owl (Part1) - Post-WW2 to Korea
Modeling the Owl (Part2) - Korea to 1960
Modeling Owl (Part 3) & Photo Analysis (Part 7) - Sept 26, 1953 Consist for No.58

My Other 6-6-4 Modeling Articles

SFE "Surprise Valley" 6-6-4 in Shadowline scheme

SFE "Surprise Valley" Pullman 6-6-4 Shadowline Sleeper (Part 1) - Painting & Decaling Right Side

Starting my long-time planned project to make a Shadowline 6-6-4.

SFE "Surprise Valley" Pullman 6-6-4 Shadowline Sleeper (Part 2) - Decaling Left Side & Reassembly - 

Continuing the Shadowline 6-6-4 project with more decaling!

MoPac's 6-6-4 "Eagle River" in The Eagle scheme

Modeling MoPac "Eagle River" Pullman 6-6-4 (Part 1) - Research and Fluting - Starting into my MoPac 6-6-4 project.

Modeling MoPac "Eagle River" Pullman 6-6-4 (Part 2) - Finish Molding & Masking - Getting the 'Eagle River' ready for paint!

Modeling MoPac "Eagle River" Pullman 6-6-4 (Part 3) - Painting, Or Not? - Like with all good investigations, before the painting... It's best to color-sand the witness!

Modeling MoPac "Eagle River" Pullman 6-6-4 (Part 4) - The Blue and the Gray... (Again)

So we're restarting the painting on the 'Eagle River' again this time... I didn't like my custom mixed colors from Part 3 of this blog series.  

My first attempts at mixing my own "Eagle Gray" and "Eagle Blue"... and too light of "MoPac Gray."

And less than 48 hours after I shot the blue onto the model in the previous post... I found that Tru-Color makes the right MoPac colors that I was having the most trouble with mixing myself.  (Sigh) So we try it again!  Hopefully this will be the last time for this model!

Intrusive Thoughts...

I don't know why, but every time I see the 'Eagle River' like this... I think it's a B&O car?!  

Walthers B&O 'Centabella', a Pullman HW 8-1-2 Sleeper.

Maybe I should see what the 'Grand Canyon' looks like with a wondering B&O sleeper in the consist with the MoPac 6-6-4 and Shadowlined Santa Fe cars next to it... they might clash.

MoPac Eagle and B&O Pullman together in Saint Louis Union Station MO Circa 1957 Postcard AB22 - Ebay photo, ended auction

Or maybe I do know, after researching and finding this photo before I started my "Eagle River" 6-6-4 project... I wonder if the MoPac E-unit here is really fading that much, or if the "Eagle Blue" really was that light in color...

Underbodies are Black...

Well, back to the modeling at hand!

Time to paint and mask the underbody black before we get started!

I painted the interior sides of the skirts, the underframe, etc Engine Black... and I can weather it down later with washes, etc.  As most of this stuff is already hidden behind the skirts, I don't mind that it will mostly be a unseen black silhouette.

Masking the interior and roof openings.

Sadly, I found out later that I missed a few spots... so I'll have to touch up the interior where some blue misted into the interior.  Ooops.

Carsides are masked off along with the roof.

I probably should have taken more time to put down a layer of masking tape across the actual top of the interior... and the small windows at both ends... but I didn't bother this time.

... Carsides are Eagle Gray...

Remasked body and repainted the 'Eagle Gray' from Tru-Color.

I painted the whole carside with the 'Eagle Gray' as I wanted to tone down how dark and saturated the "Eagle Blue" will be.

Remasked body and repainted the 'Eagle Gray' from Tru-Color.

So I made sure to get a good coat on the window band and on the skirting, with a medium coverage on the letterboard and lower side panels, which will be repainted blue again shortly.

Masked off the "Eagle Gray" and ready for the "Eagle Blue".

The Tru-Color, like my experience with StarBrand in warm weather dries quickly and I'm able to mask over it without any issues.  Tamyia tape again does the honors of not pulling up the new painted areas.

Masked off the "Eagle Gray" and ready for the "Eagle Blue".

I again didn't try to put the masking right up against the Trim Molding, but allowed the edge of the paint color to land 'somewhere' in the middle of the molding.  This will be dealt with later, after I get the base colors down.

... And then the Blue...

The other change I'm making this time is that I noticed "The Eagle" cars post-1948 had the blue letterboard all the way up to the roofline, with the Yellow stripe immediately below the edge of the roof.  Where as the as-built photos show the "MoPac Gray" coming about 4" down the side of the car, with the yellow stripe crossing the upper berth windows on the 6-6-4 and going across the door, below the door's drip rail.  Later scheme cars had the yellow stripe completely above the door as well.  So I'm painting the entire letterboard blue this time around!

Left side of the Eagle River, with "Eagle Blue" stripes applied.

I went ahead and shot all the "Eagle Blue" areas of the car.  This took a few passes to get good consistent coverage and a nice sheen on the paint.  

Right side of the Eagle River, with "Eagle Blue" stripes applied.

I'd rather do multiple passes than get the paint on too thick in one or two passes.

... And the Trucks...

The black (dark gray) trucks show the contrast to the "Eagle Gray" skirting.

Why not start reassembly... Here's the trucks and she's back on her own wheels! 

Some of the underbody equipment covers extend below the skirting, but are still painted "Eagle Gray".

The only parts of the underframe that are really visible are the generator and the water tank hanging down, and both are mounted on the car's centerline, very far away from the light.

... And the Roof...

Left side of the completed colors on the car.

I remixed my 'roof color' which is my 'best guess' at what "MoPac Gray" is.  It came from a mix of SP Lark Gray, and some MoPac Hopper Gray.  I was actually surprised how much Lark Gray was needed to darken it enough to be darker than the "Eagle Gray" on the window bands and skirting.

Right side of the completed colors on the car.

I suppose the roof and end gray could be darker... but I can leave that for when I do some light weathering to those parts of the car, which will tend to darken them somewhat with soot and road grime between the cars, which doesn't get cleaned by the automatic car washers.

In Closing

The completed colors, showing the end of the car as well.

I believe this color mix will work... the various photos of "MoPac Gray" that I've seen, especially when compared to the "Eagle Gray", doesn't seem to be that much darker... more the difference in not being 'cream colored', but maybe even a hint of blue, which I noticed in the "MoPac Hopper Gray" from Tru-Color.  However, the Hopper Gray was FAR too light in color to be used on the roof and ends of the car.

The other side showing the new colors off... the car looks weird without the Aluminum and Yellow stripes!

Next up will be the Aluminum Trim Molding, and the "Eagle Yellow" stripes at the roof line and lower trim molding with Black pinstripes above the upper stripe and below the lower stripe.  I'm still debating if I want to mask and spray the Gloss Aluminum, like I used on the Santa Fe Shadowline cars... or if I want to use something else... I'm thinking I'll use the Gloss Alumium, as it turned out really well on the Santa Fe cars so far.

Here's the bottles of Tru-Color that I used on this car, it's easy to see how much too light the MP "Hopper Gray" is compared to the "Eagle Gray", when I added the paint dots to the top of the bottles.

The "Eagle Yellow" will also have to be masked and shot on the lower stripe for sure... and I'll probably just do the same for the upper stripe.  I am considering shooting an undercoat of either straight "White" or maybe the "DRGW MOW Gray" first, which should give a consistent light color undercoat for the new "Eagle Yellow" color.  I'm still a bit surprised how much more orange-tan the "Eagle Yellow" actually is, but it does fit with this color pallet very nicely and compliments it more than one would first think.

I'm also looking into decal options for this car... so more on that hunt later!

Jason Hill

Related Articles:

I've done a number of Walthers 6-6-4 sleepers, as well as other arrangements of their cars.  Here's the two recent ones that I've been working on...

Santa Fe's 6-6-4  "Surprise Valley" in Shadowline scheme

SFE "Surprise Valley" Pullman 6-6-4 Shadowline Sleeper (Part 1) - Painting & Decaling Right Side

Starting my long-time planned project to make a Shadowline 6-6-4.

SFE "Surprise Valley" Pullman 6-6-4 Shadowline Sleeper (Part 2) - Decaling Left Side & Reassembly - 

Continuing the Shadowline 6-6-4 project with more decaling!

MoPac's 6-6-4 "Eagle River" in The Eagle scheme

Modeling MoPac "Eagle River" Pullman 6-6-4 (Part 1) - Research and Fluting - Starting into my MoPac 6-6-4 project.

Modeling MoPac "Eagle River" Pullman 6-6-4 (Part 2) - Finish Molding & Masking - Getting the 'Eagle River' ready for paint!

Modeling MoPac "Eagle River" Pullman 6-6-4 (Part 3) - Painting, Or Not? - Like with all good investigations, before the painting... It's best to color-sand the witness!  Also I had to finish the lower trim molding before painting.

Modeling MoPac "Eagle River" Pullman 6-6-4 (Part 4) - The Blue and the Gray... (Again) - I didn't like my custom mixed colors and I found that Tru-Color makes the right MoPac colors that I was having the most trouble with mixing myself.  So we try it again!