Questions of Swiss Colour and French Numbers

[Gordonwis]

Hi Gordon,

Do you by any chance have any information which could help with my question regarding the number of the tender of SNCF 231D539? (posts 1 and 7 above in this thread).

 

Dave

 

I've considered answering the 231D thread but don't know of a source. There are not that many French enthusiasts from the steam era left, especially not online. I'll ask a few UK contacts to see if they have any pointers

[NGT6 1315]

Hiya,

 

It's an ET403 "Donald Duck" EMU- there was a small batch of three built, they were tilting trains for speeding up services on traditional lines. DB decided instead to focus on building Neubaustrecke (NBS, new build lines- ie high speed) and Ausbaustrecken (Rebuilt lines) with improved alignments and non-tilt high speed trains- ie the ICE series. The ET403s later worked Lufthansa Airport Express services, operating "flights" between Düsseldorf and Frankfurt M. with tickets sold by the German national airline. They were withdrawn in 1993, and I think today sit rotting on a private railway somewhere in the north of Germany.

 

Hi Rich,

 

if I may expand on what you wrote: The tilting function was eventually disabled, as the 403 did not feature tilting pantographs which would have compensated the body tilt, which in turn was thus limited to 2°. Also, passengers had complained about nausea, which was another reason for the tilting system to have been deactivated.

 

Cheers!

[Pacific231G]

 

 

French Numbers

Does anyone know where I could find information of the tender number allocated to a particular steam locomotive number? I need to order some etched plated for my SNCF 231D, and would rather like to have the correct set for the tender too.

 

With hopeful thanks in advance,

 

Dave

 

 

Hi Dave

French sources seem remarkably silent on this point, nobody paid much attention to tenders.

I can't add much to the information about 231D539 that I suplied in answer to your query two years ago when I had the Ouest shed book on loan from the SNCFS library (It's back in the library now but I think I extracted everything relevant from it) but I'll have another delve. Tenders were generally regarded as separate vehicles in France so while they did often stay with a loco long enough to carry its number as well as their own there's not guarantee that the 22C tender it had when you were photographed next to it at Le Croisic would have been the same at some other time. I think it'll just be a matter of luck if someone happened to photograph it so that the tender number is visible but given the preponderance of front three quarter photos that may be unlikely. I'll have a delve and let you know if I find anything. If you can scan the photos that you have of 231D539 at Le Croisic to a higher resolution there is a hint of the tender plate behind a post just to your right. I will make enquiries though with French colleagues.

 

David

 

David

[Franco]

Hi Dave, just to say that i didn't forget you ... but havent got any answer yet !

As the other David said it's more a matter of luck than research, let's cross fingers!

Franco

[DIW]

Hi Franco,

 

Some PM correspondence I had with David this week inspired me to some enquiries on google.fr. One of the hits led me to the traces of your kind endeavours on my behalf - I am certainly grateful for your efforts!

 

Cheers,

 

Dave

[DIW]

Here is some follow-up on locomotive colours (brown):

 

I sprayed a piece of cardboard with white primer, red oxide primer and grey primer so that I had the three colours available on which to paint test bands of various browns.

 

A sample of each brown paint I obtained over a couple of weeks was painted across the primers, to give me the colour of the brown paint on each of the primer bases. The test card now created was compared with the paint finishes on various Swiss locos from various makers.

 

 

The best matches I found so far were:

Roco SBB Brown on Be4/6 - Railmatch 323 'Early Freight Bauxite' on Red Oxide primer

 

HAG BLS Brown on Re4/4 - Railmatch 612 'LMS Bauxite' on either Red oxide or Grey primer

 

Metrop BLS Brown and Roco BLS brown on Ae6/8 - Humbrol enamel HR110 on either Red oxide or Grey primer.

[DIW]

Does anyone know of .... UK model paint colours .... in particular .... SBB loco green

 

.... SBB-Grün (The CFF/BLS green)

NCS* 8010-B90G

No exact RAL reference. The RAL 6009 tannengrün is the closest

 

An update on this one which could be of use to modellers looking for this colour paint.

 

Delivered today was a spray can of NCS S 8010-B90G. I have found that the NCS colour range is available in the UK from paints4u.com, although it can be tricky to find the NCS range from their home page. Here is a guide:

• Go to the paints4u.com home page.
  
• Hover on the 'RAL & BS Paints' tab, then click on the 'Touchups & Aerosols' submenu.
  
• Within the tin, aerosol, gloss or satin sectors (as per your choice) click on the 'Choose Colour' button.
  
• Within the drop-down menu in section '2 Select Colour Standard' you can find and select 'NCS'.
  
• In '4. Colour Code' type in your required code (in my case of course 8010-B90G) and click 'Search'. With luck you will have your required paint listed below, ready for selecting into you shopping cart.
  

I have found their delivery to be quick, both in this instance and previously.

 

(No connection except as a customer).

 

Dave