The other week the list talked about the use of gold leaf in passenger
service and the discussion left off with me describing what gold leaf would
appear like in colour photos. So, I thought it would be interesting to walk
through a couple books to demonstrate what I think is evidence of gold leaf
in colour photos.
To start we need a technical baseline reference and locomotives are an easy
one to start with. For that I have numerous technical references:
Canadian Pacific Steam Locomotives, Appendix K, Graphics, if you read the
section, Omer Lavallee describes how CPR locomotives during Brown's era used
gold leaf for passenger service and imitation gold paint for freight. That
practice continued right through to the 1950's and Omer provides a couple
charts to show that. Every steam stencil drawing I located from 1912 and on
all state passenger engines receive gold leaf and freight get gold paint.
I'll point out one such stencil drawing. CPR stencil drawing, H-53-L-717-E,
May 22, 1948, used for the semi-streamlined Pacific G3efghj classes. The
drawing states that freight assigned engines have black panels and imitation
gold paint; passenger engines have Tuscan panels with gold leaf.
The use of gold leaf and Tuscan panels is clearly detailed in CPR stencil
drawings for the F1a, F2a, H1cd, K1a, and T1bc engines. And stencil
drawings for freight class engines, like the D10, G1/G1, older G3/G4 and the
semi-streamlined P2's all indicate that lettering and pin stripes are
imitation gold paint.
Now that we've defined our documented baseline we can look at photos and be
able to "see" gold leaf in action.
We will first be looking at Kevin Holland's Canadian Pacific Steam in Color
series. I'll be using V1 and V2 to indicate pages between the two volumes.
The perfect place to start with is V2 Page 20 showing two G3 engines, 2426,
in freight lettering and 2459 in passenger colours. This is my one and only
small bone to pick with otherwise a great book; 2426 is not in "simplified
passenger scheme" but rather freight colours. We now know that fact from
the G3 stencil drawing and it is hinted in Omer's book.
The lighting and angle of the two G3's are pretty much the same so it
eliminates many possible points that could be explained otherwise. If we
look at the striping we will notice something rather interesting. The
freight engine's yellow lettering is paler than the passenger engine's. Or,
rather, the passenger engine's lettering is more yellow - brighter. V2 page
21 clearly shows the lettering on the Royal Hudson 2821 having the same tone
as passenger Pacific 2459.
Based on the documentation evidence, I believe this bright yellow lettering
is gold leaf. And we now have a visual baseline reference for gold leaf in
colour photos: pale yellow = gold paint; bright yellow = gold leaf.
Let's explore this more.
Let's flip over to V2 page 56 with a pair of great photos of Hudson 2811 and
Pacific 2219 just to make sure we're seeing things right. Yep, looks about
right. G2's had painted lettering and Hudson's were lettered in gold leaf.
Then, another great photo, V2 page 124 of D10 962 repainted for the
Chairman's inspection train - notice the lettering? It's reflecting light.
This lettering is metallic.
I'll leave it up to you to thumb through the rest of the great book.
For those that only have Holland's Volume 1 here are a few pages to turn to:
Page 34 and 35, showing F1a Jubilee 2928. The lower photo on page 34 has
the engine with bright yellow lettering but on page 35 the lettering is
muted - different lighting conditions. Compare the engine lettering to the
Chipman engines on the proceeding pages.
Gold leaf on passenger cars is also evident in many photos. V1 page 50
shows combine 3361 with engine 29 and the lettering is brighter yellow than
engine 29's lettering. If we back up to V1 page 44 we see a nice shot of
the end door of 3361 with the brass door knob and gold leaf lettering on the
door lock rail. A nice reference shot. The photo above has nice bright
yellow Canadian Pacific lettering for us to look at too.
If you have Bill Linley's book, Canadian Pacific in Colour Vol. 1, then page
106 shows K1a 3100 with nice bright yellow lettering. Or look at Page 28
and 29 - G3 2397 in Tuscan and bright yellow lettering and M4 3474 with pale
yellow lettering.
Once you figure it out it gets rather easy. Just remember passenger engine
lettering = Tuscan red and gold leaf. Freight and mixed traffic engines =
gold paint. Passenger cars are gold leaf with the exception that it is
believed that post-1953 lettering changed to gold paint so expect a turn
over period as cars were repainted only when major shopping was done.
Jeff
