Union Pacific's Two-Tone Gray Steam Locomotives
This page was last updated on March 28, 2008.
From the mid 1940s to the mid 1950s, Union Pacific used a unique two-tone gray paint scheme for its steam locomotives assigned to passenger service.
The Challengers — UP's two-tone gray 4-6-6-4 Challengers
The Northerns — UP's two-tone gray 4-8-4 Northerns
The Mountains — UP's two-tone gray 4-8-2 Mountains
The Pacifics — UP's two-tone gray 4-6-2 Pacifics
Union Pacific's two-tone paint scheme first came into use in early 1946, to match a similar paint scheme in use by The Pullman Co. on its passenger cars since the late 1930s. Two-tone gray paint was used on most, if not all, of the steam locomotives assigned to passenger service, including the 4-6-2 Pacifics, the 4-8-2 Mountains, the 4-8-4 Northerns. UP 809 was apparently the first, in April 1946. Others followed quickly, including ten 4-6-6-4 Challengers in December 1946.
Although research has not yet identified internal company documents directing the use of two-tone gray for steam locomotives assigned to passenger service, the associated painting diagram, drawing number 992-CA-33179, is dated December 26, 1946. Comparable drawing dates for other Union Pacific equipment are July 3, 1946 for two-tone gray express boxcars, and February 14, February 27, May 25, and August 5, 1946 for two-tone gray passenger cars themselves.
As originally applied on the first few locomotives in 1946, the color of the striping and lettering was Light Gray. In late 1946 or early 1947, the color was changed to Armour Yellow, supposedly to better match the yellow color used on the lightweight cars on UP's newest post-war passenger trains, since these steam locomotives were originally intended to be used as standby power on these premium trains. On June 2, 1949, the drawing shows that the color of the striping and lettering was changed from Armour Yellow to Silver Gray. The stripe itself, both upper and lower, was 1-3/4 inches, with a black 1/4 inch edge above and below the stripe, making for a total stripe width of 2-1/4 inches.
Dick Harley wrote to the UP Modelers discussion group on August 19 and 24, 2005:
The color used after June 1949 for the lettering and stripes on UP two-tone gray steam locos was called "Silver Gray". The primary color definer here is gray - not silver. In spite of many models and model decals using a metallic color, the UP color was not metallic and not "silver".
UP Silver Gray and UP Striping Gray appeared to be the same color in 1949, with the assumption being that UP would not use two different appearing colors for both stripes and letters at the same time on two-tone gray locomotives. Accurate observations and the Pantone references were made from a properly preserved Color Drift Control card for C.S. 22 - No. 28 Striping Gray, produced in November 1949 by Bowles Printing Corporation. No comparison has yet been made with a reliable sample of Dupont 95-7581 Silver Gray.
Inspection of Pullman and UP records shows that the appearance of Pullman Imitation Silver, UP Exterior Silver Gray and UP C.S.-22 No. 28 Striping Gray (all in the 1946 to 1951 time frame) are very, very likely the same.
There is much documentation that in 1950 the primary paint used for the UP TTG lettering and stripes on passenger cars was Dupont Dulux 88-34793, and that the UP name of that paint color changed in that year from Silver Gray to Striping Gray.
Whether the paint used on steam locos changed from Dulux 95-7581 (Silver Gray) to 83-34793 or 88-34793 (Striping Gray) is still an open question.
Dick Harley wrote to the UP Modelers discussion group on June 6, 2006:
The two primary colors used by UP for its passenger Two-Tone Gray scheme were C.S. 22 - No. 183 Light Gray and C.S. 22 - No. 184 Dark Gray exterior passenger car enamel. Harbor Mist Gray (or Harbormist Grey) was C.S. 22 - No. 182.
Harbor Mist Gray is only very slightly lighter than Light Gray, and the two color drift cards need to be held next to each other to see the slight difference. I don't know how the very-similar-but-different colors came to be used. Maybe Harbor Mist Gray came from EMD and Light Gray came from Pullman, but that is just speculation.
Mike Brock made the following points to the UP Modelers discussion group on May 24, 2007:
- Kratville states that the original stripe color was silver gray and the last stripe color was yellow. See Mighty 800, page 85.
- David Schumacher's article in Prototype Modeler, 1980, pages 24-47 contains several references to the yellow stripes. "Both Jim Rice and Les Clark concur that the yellow striping and lettering variation was an experiment introduced in 1948."
- There is a drawing of the UP diagram stating: "The Silver-Grey lettering and striping on the 12-26-46 original drawing was revised to Armour Yellow on 6-2-49; equipment was repainted subsequent to that date". The drawing includes "Silver Grey...No. 95-7581" for stripes. Obviously an error was made with one critical word [ "from" should have been used instead of "to" ].
- The same diagram in the UPHS article states that lettering and striping was Armour Yellow prior to the June 2, 1949 revision. Lou Schmitz in his article "Two-Tone Gray" in the UPHS Streamliner, Vol 4 Number 1 states "Striping and lettering on these locomotives was originally Armor Yellow..." and "...and the striping was changed [ in 1949 ] to Silver Gray to match the other non streamliner equipment."
- If anyone doubts that the yellow steam passenger scheme was invoked in December 1946, I have a color photo of UP 806 on the City of St. Louis in yellow in June 1947 and fully 10 color photos taken in the period 1950-1952 of UP 4-8-4's and 4-8-2's in TTG with Silver Gray stripes. Incidentally, I have never seen a color photo of a gray UP Challenger with Silver Gray stripes but have plenty of videos showing them in yellow stripes.
Dick Harley wrote this brief chronology of two-tone gray steam locomotives:
- April 1946 - Some FEFs painted TTG with Silver Gray lettering and striping, beginning with UP 809.
- June to October 1946 - Decision to change lettering and striping to Armour Yellow - exact dates unknown.
- December 1946 - Drawing issued for "All Locos in Passenger Service" to be painted TTG with yellow lettering and striping.
- 1947 - Photos show that 4-6-2s, 4-8-2s, 4-8-4s and 4-6-6-4s were painted TTG. Most photos are Black & White.
- All FEFs and nearly all (if not all) Mountains are painted TTG. The Mountains have not been thoroughly researched yet.
- Most surviving Pacifics are painted TTG, but again, this has not been thoroughly researched.
- June 1949 - The UP drawing is revised to change yellow lettering and striping to gray lettering and striping.
- Early 1950 - Color name of Silver Gray is changed to Striping Gray.
- March 1952 - Directive was issued to henceforth paint all passenger cars yellow and gray, and all steam locos black with Aluminum lettering.
- So far, no color photo information has refuted the above dates or information.
- Color photos have been found of all four above types of locos with yellow lettering and striping.
"Greyhounds of the Overland Trail" — An article by Ross Grenard about UP's two-tone paint scheme used on its steam locomotives.
Two-Tone Gray On Other Railroads
UP's two-tone gray matched SP's scheme very closely which was introduced in about 1948-1949, and both roads' two-tone gray scheme matched an earlier version used by Pullman, which itself matched a still-earlier version introduced by New York Central. Jeff Cauthen wrote in June 2005: The best I can tell, the Shasta Daylight arrived with lettering gray (silver gray) stripping and that was 1949. The Pullman paint number for silver gray is 600-4. Also, the black edging on the stripping was removed February 23, 1956 and the total stripe width was reduced from 2 1/4 inches to 2 inches. Of course, now the 2-inch stripe was all silver gray.
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