Dorfan 410 Bridge, Orig Colors Now Known

Like these?

Yes Ace, that is one of the ones I saw.

Steve

Personally, I would prefer it with a silver superstructure and darker grey on the lower parts. But I imagine the owner wants to keep it as original as possible?

mine is the same colors, except the superstructure isn't as "silvery", more a medium gray.

I would like it as close to original as possible since I had only the bridge as a kid and that was stolen long ago. When I came across this one and it had the ramps I decided to pick it up. Both bridges have the erector set looking structure painted red so that is what confuses me. Ideas?

They came in several color variations. I have one that I restored long ago but I followed its original color scheme. It has maroon sides with an orange deck and dark Green girders. Some where I have an original center span that I picked up subsequently and as I recall the girders on that one are red. I cannot recall the deck color but if I remember correctly I believe the sides were black, but I would have to find it to verify that. I may be able to look for it in a couple of days. I had a standard/wide gauge one and it was tan sides, green deck and gray girders.

I suspect that they painted them in whatever colors were in the paint pots that day, although I have only see the three color schemes to date

Roland

Here's a couple more photo's provided by another group. I will get some better ideas when I lift the track and see what's underneath.

Steve

Ok, I removed the track and did a little wet sanding to remove some of the silver  and have determined the original colors. The top of the base and ramps are orange. The sides are green and the upper portion is red. The wet sanding on one ramp revealed a pretty decent sample of original paint so I kept sanding carefully and now have one ramp completely in it's original paint. I will attempt to do the same with the other pieces. A C5 or better original may show up. Wish me luck.

Steve

I've never seen anything like it before! 

I have now sanded away as much of the silver paint as I am comfortable doing. Some still remains but the additional sanding would do more harm than good. I added a few more pictures as it is now, ready to give back to Jeff.

Steve

I am soooo jazzed! This is really cool!

Steve,

   Seriously cool no doubt about it!

PCRR/Dave

Jeff set the bridge up on his layout at TTOS SP today so here is the bridge with his tinplate Lionel crossing it.

Steve

It's certainly colorful !

The original colors make the bridge a stand out and the restoration could not have been done better. Especially the orange color which seemed to be used more back in the day when colorful was primary before "realism" That would make a great candidate for a reproduction in my book. The delicacy of the pattern on the bridge girders is just the icing on the cake.