12-06-2011, 09:51 PM
Although there is no documentation of the figure stated on the 30, 000 cost I can tell you in 1992 we painted an SW 7 with Ditzler Del-Star acrylic enamel and added hardener. The paint, hardener, thinner, and masking tape as well as the thinner to clean the paint gun cost just under $1200. The vinyl lettering was $150, and we had about 200 bucks in sand paper and other material. It was an automotive quality job and the locomotive has been through 3 owners and wears the same paint, though it is fading.
We did not have the time saving equipment that is used in a car shop, and I would never shot blast a locomotive anyway, but with the volunteers there was 4500 hours of free labor.
If a railroad was to do a paint job on an entire box car today, with time and materials I can say 30, 000 is not out of line because you have hazmat materials to dispose of, and older cars were painted with paint containing lead, so any blasting residue is hazmat.
I have a friend that just painted a transfer caboose with a top of the line job and he had $60,000 in the job, so I can believe it.
We did not have the time saving equipment that is used in a car shop, and I would never shot blast a locomotive anyway, but with the volunteers there was 4500 hours of free labor.
If a railroad was to do a paint job on an entire box car today, with time and materials I can say 30, 000 is not out of line because you have hazmat materials to dispose of, and older cars were painted with paint containing lead, so any blasting residue is hazmat.
I have a friend that just painted a transfer caboose with a top of the line job and he had $60,000 in the job, so I can believe it.