Painting the Z-1's

 

As delivered, the Z-1s were painted passenger green and lettered in gold leaf. I'm painting one Y and one Z-1 like that.

Later, in the thirties, the Z-1's were repainted. the Pullman green was retained but lettering was changed to dulux yellow and a red field was added behind the yellow goat.

 

Electrics 5005 and 5004 were captured in the as delivered paint scheme at Skykomish in 1927, soon after arrival on GN property. It is a passenger green body and roof, black porch, frame and wheels and gold lettering. Note the the window trim is a lighter shade of green. Perhaps this was the same shade of the Oriental Limited's letterboard - who knows?

MMonteyMonty Powell

Monty powell /Dave Hickcox Book

This is the 1950's scheme. About the time the Y-1s were given the orange and green paint scheme, the Z-1s acquired a white goat in the herald. Prior to that both the Z's and Y's were painted the same passenger green with Dulux yellow lettering including a yellow goat on a red field. That is the scheme I'll be usingfor my 1941 era pike.

 

Several years ago Oriental Limited imported an O gage model of the Great Northern Z-1 electric. They came as a pair, one powered and the second a dummy, with each picking up half the power. the model is correct for the 1941-1947 period so no modification is necessary except to drill out the markers and headlight to accept the 1.5 volt micro-bulb and adding pick-up to the powered unit so may be run independatly from the dummy.

 

 

 

 

A pair of Z-1's as they came out of the Oriental Limited box. As deliverd, they consist of one powered unit and one dummy, connected by a drawbar. The powered unit depends on the dummy for one side of the power pick-up. Prior to painting I modified the power unit to pick up power from all eight drivers so that it was not dependant on the dummy.

Here they have been disassembled , washed and are now ready to be painted.

MMonteyMonty Powell

The Z-1s frame and running gear have been painted black and are ready for reassembly.

The superstructures have been painted and decalled. Next they will be mounted on the asembled frames.

 

 

This pair has been lettered as 5004a (powered) and 5004B (dummy). One change I did make to the pair was to remove the drawbar and replace it with two couplers. The superstructures have not yet been secured as they still need to have DCC decoders installed and the lights wired.

 

 

This is a close up of one unit.

I managed to acquire a rare set of gold decals that had been produced by Champ for NJ Custom Brass when they imported the Y-1. I used it to letter one Z-1. From the pictures of the original scheme I noted that the windows were a lighter color so this unit also has lighter windows. It is numbered 5001 so it can be run as a single unit.

 

 

 


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