Oklahoma Orange & JDC Green

Well, its' about time!

Valley Railroad No. 0900 is (finally) getting a fresh coat (two, actually) of paint.

No. 0900 is a General Electric 80 Ton diesel-electric locomotive built in March 1947 (construction No. 28689 for you numerologists out there) built by GE for use at their plant in Schenectady, NY. It was later sold the Berkshire Scenic Railway which in turn sold it to VRR in May 1991. It actually looked pretty good back then, but over the years it became a bit tatty and not really suitable for hauling "The Essex Clipper Dinner Train" our premier offering and No. 0900's usual assignment.

Early this year Scott Dimartino began by prepping (sanding & body work) and painting the cab with DuPont "Fulthane". This included removing all the windows which received new gaskets and were reinstalled by Middletown Plate Glass. The project languished until last month when our support group, "The Friend's of the Valley Railroad Company", volunteered to prep the hoods. They were assisted by VRR engineer Jim Miller and Locomotive Foreman Wayne Hebert. Once prepped "Friend" Chris Pakula primed and finish coated it with DuPont "Centari" (assisted by Tom Krulikowski).

The paint scheme is an "homage" to the dear departed "New York, New Haven & Hartford": orange hoods, green cab and black frame and trucks. But sorry New Haven fans, the green is a bit darker, almost "Pullman Green" as per the suggestion of VRR engineer Mike Camera (and the parsimonious nature of the CMO who mixed left over paint from several projects to come up with the final color).

Come to think of it, the locomotive's number too harkens back to the NYNH&H, whose early electric and diesel electric locomotives had their numbers prefixed with a "0" (zero) to distinguish them from their steam locomotives. Somehow I think that the crews would have noticed the difference, at least once they got into the cab.

J.David