Can’t wait to se Audrey finished after all theses years. On one hand, it’ll be a shame to get her dirty but on the other hand, you’ll have a blast doing so.

Audrey has made many friends. In his own foundry and at his own expense, Barney Gramling has cast a set of builders plate for Audrey. Barney and his father John are the owners of Gramling Locomotive Works and touring steam locomotives Lehigh Valley Coal Co. 0-6-0T No. 126 and Flagg Coal Co. 0-4-0T No. 75. Barney wanted to make sure when the time comes for Audrey to enter service that she has the proper jewelry. It's been a while since I've posted an update. More news will be coming soon. Our deepest appreciation goes out to Barney Gramling.

YES INDEED !!! Before anybody asks, we are neither going into business with "Have Engine Will Travel", nor would we even think about trying to compete with them. They just did this to be nice. May a lucky star always shine brightly wherever they take their engines. THANKS AGAIN & AGAIN !!!

Audrey Green be 1317...

That's close enough for jazz, Brother Pete. You did a fine job of researching this for us. I also should mention that the in-service picture of Audrey which appeared in your post was made available to us by Keith Ardinger from his extensive collection of slides. Both of your names are now on the list of good folks who have done something nice for Audrey, and been thanked again & again.

Yeah Sammy, that Audrey's a cheeky little tart, bringing good folks together like this.

Here's the Martin-Senour dual chip match with the Penn Central boxcar in the background from back when she was still residing at Hoosier Valley. WE5646 is the equivalent of DuPont 1317. WE5645, DuPont 6202, was the first runner-up but appears to be too light...

I'm leaning towards Gator Green, but Snapping Turtle Green is probably close enough...

Well then, how about Alligator Snapping Turtle Green? They're native to Florida. LOL

Typically, the two darkest fleet chrome greens are International Dark Green on the left and and Chevrolet Forester Green in the middle. Out of those two, the Burlington Northern dark green seems to resemble Forester Green the most in pictures I've seen. On the right is Chevrolet Juniper Green which is just a bit darker than the CNW's Traditional Green.

International Dark Green is the color of old Blue Bird school bus seat frames if you remember what they looked like...

Pete, I don't know if enough is left of the original cab to actually uncover a paint chip or sliver of wood with a scanable paint layer on it, but Mike is a pretty meticulous guy, he'll find it if there is.

If not, then we should reverse engineer it --- Would a phosphate pit have gone to all the trouble to get a custom blended color ?? Unlikely. Where would they buy paint ?? Tractor Supply was my choice a few years ago, Rustoleum Oliver Green looked pretty close. So, did they have Tractor Supply sixty or seventy years ago in Bone Valley, how about NAPA (never any paint available), or ACE Hardware maybe. By the time we have a new cab to put on the locomotive, and a locomotive ready to put it on, I bet you'll be able to tell me all about it...

Won't it be a wonderful thing when you actually have to choose a color scheme?

I don't know if Audrey wouldn't make a great addition to the Gramling road show - if there are bookings they can't accept perhaps Audrey could be a great fill-in locomotive and give you a chance to do some railroading here and there....... and prevent some people from being disappointed in the process.

That's kind of you to suggest that, Dave, but I think they are pretty successful without us. I should think we wouldn't be asked to fill in for the Gramlings or anybody else until we've proven ourselves to be capable, and not too big a nuisance to work with. We need to prove that Audrey LIVES as well.

What I can tell you is that it's too early to tell anybody what we're up to, but you can be pretty sure that we're up to something. When our arrangements are solid, we'll be trying to get more folks more interested in coming to see us. For the time being, "The Audrey Phenomenon" is plenty of encouragement for Team Porter #6.

I was thinking along those lines myself, Sammy, that Audrey's green could be an old off-the-shelf Rustoleum color. The agriculture greens are generally toward the lighter and brighter end of the scale where 5316, 6202, and 1317 are located on the fleet charts. As a matter of fact, 1317 is DuPont's number for H-26 New Idea Green.

Here's the 1962 Rustoleum selection from PaintRef. International Dark Green is listed as well...

http://paintref.com/cgi-bin/colorcodedi ... um&rows=50

If Mike could liberate enough of a sample off the old cab, I'd be happy to take a look at it and compare it to the chips I have on hand.

1317 is also the final REA Express green...

I'll see what we can do, Pete. At least black is black, and aluminum is aluminum... or did I speak too soon ??

A little tank loco that has grabbed our attention, and I suspect, our hearts!

When I painted a truck in my back yard 55 years ago John Deere green was the color of choice. I was a city boy, but it was probably readily available at Tractor Supply.