Unfortunately too much on the web showing old time locomotive liveries is based on Hollywood and Disneyland. A look into real 1870s and 1880s liveries reveals toning, colours and decoration far more tasteful, deeper tones and consistency of colour across the whole loco. But mostly people just want what appeals and history be damned! I respect that.
As for Pacific Slope - the livery on that model is actually based on one of the livery styles used by the D&RG in their early repaints of their fleet in the 1880s. It is not based on the Baldwin paint style of 1880, which was originally Dark Olive Green, style 103, which was a dark green loco all over, including frames, wheels and cab, with gold, red and white linework. The original liveries didn't last more than a few years before the Rio Grande repainted. This time in black, leaving only the Planished Iron boiler jacket unpainted. The repaints were typically two styles - black with large gold numbers on the tender, or black with Denver & Rio Grande written on the tender. The former was more typical, but the latter prettier and the one seen on your model. Probably 'Pacific Slope' wore both schemes between 1883-1889. It was a subdued style, all black with Planished jacket, little polished brass. Even the jacket bands were polished iron and not brass, hence the continuous Planished Iron look to the boiler. No polished wood cab, they were not that common. The vast majority of Baldwin cabs were painted ash, usually in matching colour to the rest of the loco. Polished walnut cabs were reserved for the more first class passenger engines, and not so many by 1880.
Engine #71 'Pacific Slope' has some history. It was one of many class 56 2-8-0 owned by the line and brand new in 1880. (Baldwin class 10-24 E, Drawing 3).
Loosing the battle of the railroads, the Rio Grande found itself trapped inside the state of Colorado, hemmed in to the south by the AT&SF and the north by the UP. Giving up the dream of the transcontinental route in the N-S direction all the way to Mexico, the Rio Grande instead turned west into the mineral fields that lay to the west of the great continental divide. The line would wind up to the 10,000ft Mashall past and down to the mining communities on the Pacific side of the divide. As the railroad gangs built the line over the pass, the whistles of the construction locomotives echoed through the towns in the valley below, getting closer by the day. it was said that the townsfolk of Gunnison likened the whistles to the 'coming of civilisation....' Great riches always followed where the railroad came. The first train to cross the divide and down the western slope into the town of Gunnison in 1881 was brand new engine #71, 'Pacific Slope'. A really apt name for the first engine to run all the way down the Pacific coast side of the mountain.
Leave your engine as it is painted. This is how it was meant to be even if not representing the as-built style of the engine, but one of the first repaints.
David.
