Eastern Railroad Discussion > White CSX locomotive cab roofs

I have noticed that CSX paints their locomotive cabs white. This seems to be a pretty good idea for cab comfort. I’m just wondering if CSX tested this idea before they committed to this paint scheme or was it just that a paint scheme...just curious!

Posted from iPhone

CSX has been painting their cab roofs white (or coating them with white material) for more than 15 years now; I'm fairly confident they started doing this before they adopted the current dark blue/gold paint scheme, and it was a deliberate thing to help reduce solar heating during the warmer months. I don't remember if it was first "tested" before becoming standard, but obviously something like that isn't applied overnight to an entire fleet of locomotives.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/02/19 12:54 by toledopatch.

I’m surprised that other carriers have not followed suit. You see school districts all over the south with white roofed school buses. I’m sure there is quite a temperature difference.

Posted from iPhone

As per its usual hidebound practice, good ol' boy NS will be the last to "discover" this marvelous way to povide greater crew comfort.  They ain't lost the plantation mentality yet!
 

When running BN trains in the sweltering heat with no fan or air conditioning, sitting in a siding I used to wonder why on earth the locomotive tops were painted black - even the cabooses had silver roofs! === === = === JLH

Yep being on that iron (ATSF Yellow) in east Texas, in the hot summer, with no ac, will fill your boots with sweat. I would like to see the difference, darker colors vs white.

Posted from iPhone

I'm sure this works like KCS painting locomotives white. Probably gets dingy pretty quickly. Tops of locomotive are not the cleanest places in the world.

A hot cab is a hot cab regardless of any color they paint it! Since they went through all that effort they could've put a/c's on them instead!

Posted from Android

KDC Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I’m surprised that other carriers have not
> followed suit. You see school districts all over
> the south with white roofed school buses. I’m
> sure there is quite a temperature difference.
>
> Posted from iPhone
Every new warehouse built in the last 15 years has a white roof also.!

PRR1361 Wrote:
...... greater crew comfort. ....

As I recall CSX did this to keep the electronic stuff cooler.  You don't think a Class 1 is concerned about crew comfort, do you ?

A friend of mine who retired from the research arm of a large paint company thinks white is good, but silver would be better.

SZ

Somewhere back I read that this was started by CSX as an alternative to A/C being added to the locomotive, in other words the poor man's air conditioning. The person who said it was started with the old scheme was correct, it's been since whenever the first widenose's were delivered to CSX without A/C. I'm sure there is some difference but also way back, I read in a magazine that they did tests and it didn't make too much of a difference. Would be interesting to see that info again or an updated version of it, to refresh my memory. But I'm sure everyone will have their own opinions, I've driven more black cars in high heat than white ones and have never noticed that the A/C was working "less" or anything in my black vehicles.

Steinzeit2 Wrote:
> A friend of mine who retired from the research arm of a large paint company thinks white is good, but silver would be better.

I don't buy it. White (pigmented with titanium dioxide) will provide higher infrared reflectance than what "we" call silver (actually aluminum flake).
-Ted

PRR1361 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> As per its usual hidebound practice, good ol' boy
> NS will be the last to "discover" this marvelous
> way to povide greater crew comfort.  They ain't
> lost the plantation mentality yet!

Actually, NS tested white roofs years ago.  They tested roofs in one of the worst cases - yard engines that get little or no breeze.  The test was at DeButts Yard in Chattanooga.  The white roofed cab  was only 2-3 degrees cooler.

The railroads do not paint the roofs white for crew comfort. Crew comfort is the very last thing on their minds. The roofs are painted white to help keep the electronics in the cab cooler. That there may be a bit higher level of crew comfort is pure coincedence.

C'mon, these are southern boys. I'm betting it's just good old trailer house roof sealer. Probably cheaper. easier to use, and more durable than most anything else. :-)

Dano
Montana

Notch7 Wrote:
> Actually, NS tested white roofs years ago.  They
> tested roofs in one of the worst cases - yard
> engines that get little or no breeze.  The test
> was at DeButts Yard in Chattanooga.  The white
> roofed cab  was only 2-3 degrees cooler.

Did they take into account that the rest of the cab and locomotive was still black (with that radiating heat)?  2-3 degrees in a cab that still has black all around is pretty good.

I know there have been some tests on traffic signal cabinets - where the usual silverish bare metal was compared with black painted cabinets (what some cities do to try to make the cabinets "less visible" or "more aesthetically pleasing").   Summer temperatures in the black painted cabinets can be 20 or more degrees hotter even with fan running.

PS.  First CSX units to get the white cab roofs that I recall were assigned to Florida - about 2001...   When CSX got the ex-EMD SD70Ms about that time some got white cab roofs before getting CSX paint.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/03/19 18:43 by CSX602.