Scrap Iron Magnet - Opinions Wanted

I vote Dirty Yellow with grime, just saw one on the net that color.

Cesar

I second Cesar.

Alan Graziano

I don't work at one but -Dirty yellow, or yellow so dirty its really just black with yellow specks. These are the only two colors I remember seeing electromagnets while at the mill, or the scrap yard.

 Cranes, are mostly white. But they often fly away before I can get a close look 

The booms black, or dark mostly, except boom tip section-yellow or red, and a contrasting color on added jib, boom extensions.   

Hmmm.  Interesting vote count so far.  Thanks for voting guys.  Unfortunately, it's been 40 years since I worked with one or saw one personally.  I seem to remember them as very dark and rusty.

Let's hear more opinions.  My mind's not made up yet.

George

Do a Google image search on "magnet crane" and you can see dozens of them (real and toy).   Note especially that the one in "The Brave Little Toaster" is menacing orange:

Yes, I did a google image search before putting up the topic.  I was curious as to forum thinking.

George

Sorry.   I vote for rusty (menacing) orange.  You can't beat the intuitions of good animators. 

All of the above? Detailed like it had 10 paint jobs, one each year of use. But receives so much in scratches and grime, you can't tell its fresh after a very short time. Kind of what happens at the mills. The smelting mills also have a "fallout" of dust and ash that will give topside surfaces of everything in the surrounding area, a fine coat of black grimy dust each day. What era is the layout based in? Dad said during the 50s-60s you would have up to 3/8 inch of grimy dust to sweep off your car in the morning, about a mile from the mill. So imagine what years used do to this equipment then, and how "clean" it is now.  

Yep!  The time frame is 1954, although my own experience with them dates to 1972-74.  In the 1950s and 1960s, graphite fallout in the atmosphere is anywhere from red oxide to black in color.  As a child, I recall the Open Hearth smokestacks billowing smoke (red, gray, black and shades in between) into the air.  It's not an urban legend - my grandmother would have to shake particulates off the laundry that hung in the backyard.

I think I will be doing rusty orange / brown with a lot of grimy black.  Nothing in Weirton Steel was clean or looked like new.

Many thanks for all the input!

George