Denver & Rio Grande Western Jackson Sharp Cars

[RkyGriz]

I am looking for some Denver & Rio Grande Western Jackson Sharp passenger cars in the dark green with yellow lettering paint scheme. Does anybody know if Bachmann makes such cars or do I need to custom make them by repainting some other cars and then adding after market decals.
Thanks!

[Loco Bill Canelos]

You will have to repaint them!  Bachmann only made the cars in the maroon or the yellow colors.  If you repaint them Cedarleaf Custom Decals can make the decals you need for the lettering.

Bill 

[Chuck N]

In May when I was in Denver, Caboose Hobbies had some of the maroon ones in stock.

I picked up one.

Chuck

Last winter I was able to pick up 4 used Bachmann J&S cars.  They were all green, two were unlettered and two were lettered for the WP&Y.  I did some repaint on the WP&Y as the roofs were red, not black.  I had Stan make me decals for the Colorado and Southern.  I had an engine by the company that shall not be named, lettered for the C&S and I wanted a correct consist.

Here are some pictures of the cars after leaving the paint shop.







Here are the Bachmann maroon D&RGW cars mixed with some other companies.



The bottom line is it isn't that difficult to repaint and letter these cars.  Stan's instructions for applying decals are excellent and if followed will give excellent results.

[RkyGriz]

Hank you Bill, and Chuck! This is what I want to  do:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/281753679169?_trksid=p2060353.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT
What exact shade of green will I need? Do you know the FS # by any chance?
Thanks again!

[Chuck N]

I think that the "Official color" is Pullman green.  If you have access to model train paints in a rattle can, I'd use that.  In the absence of that I use a dark green krylon, Rustolyum, or equilivant.  I think the name might be forest green.

I'd use a gloss finish as that is better for the decals.  You can always spray it with a matte finish at the end.  If you paint the roof, you will need a gloss letter board at the top of the side.

Chuck

[RkyGriz]

I'll probably wind up buying a set of the yellow Jackson Sharp cars and repainting and lettering them . I may alternate yelowl and green cars since that's the way it's shown on a youtube video I saw recently starring the 4-4-0 Eureka and Palisades #4, Denver & Rio Grande Western #311, and D&NSRGRR Caboose #0540 running the tracks in Durango, Co. back in 2010-2013.
Here's the link to that video if you would like to check it out:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yzyZRio0MMY
Thanks for your help, Chuck. I really like your C&S cars!

[Chuck N]

Thanks, glad you like the cars.  There is nothing wrong with mixing yellow and green cars.  During the transition from green to yellow in the late 1940s I'm sure the D&RGW mixed them.  I may be wrong, but I think that the yellow colors were created for the Chicago Railroad Fair in the late 1940s.  I have a picture in a book that shows an excursion train on Cumbres pass with a mixed consist of green and yellow cars.  I think that it was taken in the early 50s.

I have three maroon cars and I'm going to mix them with my yellow ones.  The maroon observation car is called "RICO".  I'll keep it as it is.  I have fond memories of the town of Rico.  Some colleagues and I were doing some geology in the area around Rico.  We detected some anomalies in our data and predicted a potential mineral deposit at depth under the town.  Several years later a major minerals company drilled the anomaly and found a world class molybdenum deposit.  At the time we calculated the value at about $20,000,000,000.  One doesn't get a scientific success like that very often.  That is why I'll keep my maroon RICO maroon.

Chuck

Here is a picture of the excursion train, note the yellow and dark (green) cars.


I tried to recreate it a few years ago at a friends event, close, but not quite.

[RkyGriz]

Thanks for the info, Chuck! I have the complete set of maroon D&RG cars myself. I converted them from battery to track powered lighting and then back to battery powered lighting. Now that I've been successful with converting my Bachmann Virginia & Truckee cars to no-flickering track powered lighting, I'm considering converting them all back to track powered lights. Crazy, but I do like track power better for lighting my cars than batteries and it will give me a new project. We'll see.
Talk to you later,
Andrew