Hopper Paint Schemes in the 1970s

[NW Mailing List]

 I have no clue as to which hopper paint scheme was most prevalent during any given era, but that won't stop me from commenting.  Ha Ha.  I would suggest that certain paint schemes are more prevalent in the photographic record due to selection bias.   Personally, I never liked the NW "stick lettering" scheme, therefore, I rarely photographed equipment painted in that scheme, after all, film is expensive and I wasn't about to waste it on something I didn't like.  The same can be said for book publishers.  They print the pictures they like best and leave out the rest.  An absence of stick lettered equipment could simply be due to the selection bias of the photographers, authors, and editors, not any particular absence of any specific equipment.  
Also, equipment would be painted in any particular scheme if it was 1) new, or 2) just receiving a major rebuild.  Existing equipment, with the possible exception of motor power, just was not repainted until it was absolutely necessary to do so.   
Jerry Kay, Jarratt, Virginia
    On Monday, September 8, 2025 at 02:57:41 PM EDT, NW Mailing List <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org> wrote:   

 I grew up in the 80s, so I didn't get to witness 1970s era N&W firsthand, but it's probably my favorite N&W era for diesels.  While there are a variety of sources to help identify what classes of hopper cars were in service, I'm curious about the mix of paint schemes.  Looking through "Norfolk And Western In Color Volume 3", it looks like the 1960s era half-moon/hamburger schemes, albeit with consolidated lube plates and other updated data, were actually more common than cars in the NW scheme that would have been the current scheme at the time.  
Can anyone else confirm this, or know of other sources I should look at?
ThanksMarty Flick________________________________________
NW-Mailing-List at nwhs.org
To change your subscription go to
https://pairlist6.pair.net/mailman/options/nw-mailing-list
Browse the NW-Mailing-List archives at
https://pairlist6.pair.net/pipermail/nw-mailing-list/
  
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://pairlist6.pair.net/pipermail/nw-mailing-list/attachments/20250908/f7898c6d/attachment.htm>