Sammy -

To answer your query, here's a photo of SD-9M #814 pulling the second train of the day back around Hoosier Valley's Shop building, heading toward the depot. I took the opportunity to ride in the cupola of EJ&E #510 on this particular trip. BTW, our other SD-9M (orange painted #818) can be seen on the opposite side of the Shop.

Les

Great project and documentation. I see you got the old logo on the side. Well done.

phillman -

Your comments are appreciated. I can't believe that I never included a close up of that historic EJ&E herald that Mark painted on the 510. Well, better late than never!

Les

Les - did you ever get an answer on the interior color? Ours was kind of a battleship gray but I don’t know if that was original. Certainly looked like it was. We repainted with a slightly lighter gray so it isn’t quite as dingy-dark inside.

Eric -

Ours is a medium gray too, possibly the same "battleship gray" that was in your caboose. I'm not sure if that was the original color. I suspect it was not. As I recall, Illinois Railway Museum has a similar EJ&E caboose and I think, if I recall correctly, that it is different color. It also has the original double bunk beds. The guys at Whitewater Valley also have one of the cabooses, but I have no idea as to its interior color. There are a number of other EJ&E cabooses from that series still preserved out there. Maybe one of them has the original interior paint scheme.

Les

I think the gray may have been correct. We removed a small bit of peeling paint and there wasn’t anything like the usual “institutional green” under there. The inside of the lockers and cubbies are all still gray. I can’t imagine those being repainted at any time.

Eric - I stopped by the Griffith Depot Museum today and found the John Wotkun, who is a member there (and also at HVRM) had their interlocking tower open. He also had opened up their EJ&E caboose, number 503. This is the first time I have ever been in their caboose and was surprised at the interior. The 503 wore a coat of light-yellow paint, badly faded and now peeling in spots. The second photo shows dark brown paint (with lettering for the first aid cabinet in yellow) under the peeling paint. Also note the lockers, showing that same dark brown paint. There was other dark brown paint showing in other spots, including the water tanks. At one end of the car, the dark brown paint was at the bottom of the wall with tan paint at the top. Unfortunately, my photo of that wall did not come out. From this inspection, my guess is that the car wore a two-tone paint scheme of tan and dark brown with the dark brown on as a "highlight" color. No gray paint in evidence anywhere! Nor any green! I think the verdict is still out until we can find some other interior examples. There are other EJ&E cabooses out there. Can we get some responses from other folks?

Les

Eric -

Here's one additional photo of the dark brown paint with yellow lettering. Couldn't quite figure out what was being spelled out there, and although I thought I could take off a little bit more of the peeling paint to find out, I thought that probably really was a no-no.

Les

It looks like "START-STOP" to me.

Les - That’s interesting. I didn’t find anything but gray under our peeling paint. Maybe the first coat of gray adhered really well? Even the inside of the lockers, compartments and small storage cubbies were gray. If I get some time, I’ll poke around in more detail. Out of curiosity, I’d like to know what you find out.

The P&WV cabooses #850 thru #854 ordered from ICC in 1951, which were similar to the J’s, were your run of the mill institutional green inside - probably the ICC standard color if you didn’t specify anything else.

And I never got a chance to do any sanding down for numbers. Too many other things needed attention first and when we said go, the painter was on it in a flash sanding and blasting.

That may be correct if that’s the electrical cabinet. As delivered, they had a genset that ran on propane.