# Virgina & Truckee INYO colours?



## norman (Jan 6, 2008)

Hi Guys:

The NSRM Nevada State Railroad Museum presently has the INYO painted in LAKE BROWN (headlamp, cowcatcher, cab & tender).
The Rivarossi HO Scale and O Scale models always had the INYO painted in RED (headlamp, cowcatcher, cab & tender).
Did Rivarossi watch too many Hollywood Westerns and decided that the INYO cab and tender were RED or is this a correct paint scheme for INYO during some
period of her steaming career?
Any V&T fans out there who would know?

Norman


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## Dwight Ennis (Jan 2, 2008)

Inyo was built by Baldwin in 1875, which is right around the time Baldwin transitioned from Wine to Lake. Wine was a burgandy color, not a garish red. The Lake color scheme only lasted a few years as around 1880, Baldwin started using their Olive scheme.

SMR Trains produced four brass O-scale models of V&T 4-4-0's a while back... *#19 Truckee and #20 Tahoe and #23 Santiago and #24 Merrimac*. Truckee and Tahoe are painted in Wine, and Santiago and Merrimac in Lake. I bought one of their Truckee models done in Wine...




























#19 Truckee and #20 Tahoe were built in 1875 and both are in Wine, while #23 Santiago and #24 Merrimac were built in 1876 and both are in Lake. Inyo was built in 1875 but her number is #22, meaning she was built right in between. According to *this website*, _"In 1974, the State of Nevada brought their famous locomotive home, where the INYO was painstakingly restored to her 1893 appearance and to operable condition."_ Later, it says, _"in 1937 was sold to Paramount Pictures to begin a career in the movies. And what a career! She starred with Joel McCrae in "Union Pacific", along side John Wayne in "Red River", and also had roles in a dozen others like "High, Wide, and Handsome", "The Great Locomotive Chase", and TV's "Wild, Wild West". She also played the part of the "Jupiter" at the Golden Spike National Historic Site in Utah."_

Based upon this, my guess would be that Inyo was originally delivered in either Wine or Lake (hard to say as she was built right in the transition period), and later received her Red paint scheme at the hands of Hollywood. David Fletcher and others have written fairly extensively about Baldwin's original paint schemes, and according to these trusted sources, Baldwin never used bright red. That was a later Hollywood invention.


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## Tom Leaton (Apr 26, 2008)

In the indoor light, it apeared to have a gunmetal gray boiler jacket, gloss brown cab and tender and bright red pilot wheels and drive wheels. Color images at Google images under "NSRM inyo"

cheers


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## peter bunce (Dec 29, 2007)

Hi,

More general locomotive information is available at the following site http://www.pacificng.com David Fletcher did a lot of the work there and there is a whole series of color views as well.



The link is to the first page - look at the links etc on the left hand side & enjoy.


More on Baldwin colors is at http://www.mylargescale.com/Community/Forums/tabid/56/aff/8/aft/115219/afv/topic/Default.aspx


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## norman (Jan 6, 2008)

Hi Dwight: 

The #13 Empire was restored by the museum with all the intricate pin striping of Baldwin No. 1 Style. Guess what happened? The museum later learned that the base colour is wrong! Dave Fletcher told me of that long ago. 
The John Wayne Hollywood 4-4-0 colour scheme also seems to really annoy Dave! But hey, it looks good! 

The Bowker is presently painted in the historically incorrect Lake Brown. Why would a museum incorrectly paint the Bowker in brown? This will lead to confusion and historical errors for future generations. 

I am going with WINE , using the Bachmann factory garish red finished parts, for my Bachmann 4-4-0 version of the INYO. 

SMR Trains has an excellent product line and I was tempted by their V&T locos. They now offer the correct stub switches for the period. But I constrained myself and will make do with a narrow gauge version of the standard gauge INYO 4-4-0 with undersized drivers! I will pretend that it is a 1:29 scaled 4-4-0 ! I may install smaller diameter wheels on the tender to try and trick the eye. 

I wish Bachmann would build 1:32 standard gauge Hudsons, Pacifics and American 4-4-0 locos. Probably won't happen and I won't be alive forever and must use the present product available. 


Does anyone know of a Bachmann 4-4-0 tender available in the red South Pacific Coast paint finish? 


Norman


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## David Fletcher (Jan 2, 2008)

Oh boy, lots of trouble to sort here. 

Inyo is restored to an 1890s appearance, which also shows just how well the V&T treasured its locos and cars, even in repaints and new schemes she was kept stylish. This Brown is not Lake, its a much lighter Chocolate Brown, possibly based on the Central Pacific's Sacramento Shops paint styles (of which the V&T owned two locos and maintained variants on those styles through repaints). 

Inyo was indeed Wine Style 1 when built, which also means she had wine colour wheels, not red wheel when built. BUT, the Reno and Genoa that preceeded her were built right in the red wheel era prior to Style 1, and so they most probably had the red wheels. Therefore you can have both! Its probably something that the V&T liked and hence kept the red wheels for Pass engines later on, such as the 1890s colour scheme. 

Bowker is not Lake today either but a plain brown aimed to seal and preserve the engine till her days comes. Bowker is one of those dilemas, she's somewhat altered, 1890s cab etc, so going back to her Lake, Style 1 finish is probably not going to happen, but another 1890s restoration, but then there is the issue that she was sold to other roads during that time, so you cant really restore her as a V&T loco. I'm sure they'll resolve something. 

Empire was restored to Lake colour with red wheels- Vermillion (pre styles book, but not unlike Style 27 after 1874), and looks absolutely stunning. Lake however wasn't used at Baldwin till mid 1875, 2 years after Empire was built, but that wasn't the real reason for later research suggesting the Lake may not have been correct, it was actually paint scrapes from the loco itself that pointed to the Wine colour and the spec sheet itself calls for Wine colour. No point redoing her - its a lot of work, and in that display and lighting, changing her to wine would not actually change the visual all that much. She very much captures the Baldwin 1873 flavor as restored, even if the exact pigment may not be quite right. Thats that nature of this kind of research, new data comes down the pipe all the time. 

David.


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## norman (Jan 6, 2008)

Hi Dave: 

Thank you for the colour clarification. I am going to leave the green boiler as is. Looks good even if not histrically correct. The INYO Russia Iron was grey as I found a website showing a piece of INYO's original boiler cladding. But other locos of the period had Russia Iron of green colour. DisneyWorld has two 2-6-0 locos with green painted steel boiler cladding to represent Russia Iron. One loco is a lime green while the other is a richer and darker green. I will never be able to match Bachmann's factory paint finishes so I try to leave things as is. 

The Bowker could have been painted Canadian Pacific passenger maroon with Canadian Pacific passenger yellow pinstriping and lettering. But that would look so good that the museum would probably want to leave those historically incorrect colours as is! 

Norman


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