[isoc]

I am weathering my rolling stock with chalk, and had enough success that I thought I would start on my locomotives. The two (out of 3) Conrail that I've done so far seem OK and I want to start the third, but I am not quite sure about what I am seeing in internet images. (3358, 3383, 3275).

The tops/roofs of many diesel locomotives can look quite sooty. Though some are less so. However it appears to me that the short hood of the Conrail GP40's is actually painted black on top, in front of the window. At first I just thought it was a lot of soot there, too. But it seems to have a definite "edge". I have flat black paint and Tamiya masking tape, so it would be no challenge to paint the top of the short hood black (and then maybe add a bit of dark chalk for some texture).

I just thought I'd ask about this here before painting. Chalk is only chalk (at least until I add dul coat), but the black paint is really a "commitment."

Cheers, Ted

 

[Old_Hobo]

Many railroads painted the top of the low hoods on their GP units black, as an anti-glare surface.....I know CN did for sure.....

 

[J.Albert1949]

All the Conrail GP40's that I ever ran had blue on top of the short hoods. In fact, ALL the Conrail engines had "blue tops". I never saw one painted black in my time there (79-91).

The tops of the hoods got dirty after a while, looked almost black.
The short hood would get a coat of dust, and look blue/dirty grey.

I don't know what they had with newer engines after the early 90's. By then I had moved over "to the Amtrak side"...

 

[isoc]

Thanks both for your replies! Cheers, Ted

 

[isoc]

Here is my artistic interpretation of the above. Also partly based on a youtube CR video where I saw three locomotives like this all together leading the train: one pretty heavily weathered, the next not so much, and the third looked like it just got out of the shop.

Cheers, Ted