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Reply to "PRR P5a Boxcab WITHOUT zinc pest?"

@GG1 4877 posted:

I've never seen a photograph of a P5a box cab with a maroon roof.  In general the use of maroon on cab roofs on PRR locomotives during the steam era is greatly exaggerated in the modeling world.  Then again to be fair, color photographs of P5s in general are not very common especially early in their careers.

More often I have seen black roofs as lots of tar was used on the roofs to keep the notoriously leaky cabs from leaking even worse!

Generous amounts of fresh black paint was also used on the frames near the end of their service to hide the cracks from the inspectors.

Good points, I figured the roofs were black but thought I would ask the expert! Broadway Limited Exports run of the P5's in HO scale had maroon roofs so perhaps one of the real P5's got this beauty treatment

Last year for Christmas, I received a great book on the P5's: Pennsy's P5 Electrics by PRRTHS at $10 it's a great bargain and dives into the development and testing of the P5's - including the troubles with the frame cracks, axle cracks, problems getting the equalizer bars just right, and problems with lateral movement of the leading truck due to too much weight on the drivers. Worth checking out if you haven't read it already.

That 3rd rail model you have sure is gorgeous.

Last edited by Prr7688

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