Caption: Bob Merriam's hard work basks in the sun at Salford - both 1620 and 6508 bearing his mark. Bob is an OSR mechanic who has a speciality in designing and repainting engine schemes - and has repainted OSR engines for the last 10 years or so. 1620 was the first engine repainted for OSR since 2007, and 6508 followed soon after the completion of 1620. Why in this order? Well, to start, 1620 was bought from CP, and the CP branding has to come off. By the time the branding was taken off so much of the engine was in primer, the decision was made to just paint the whole thing, and 6508 had to wait a couple months longer for its turn.

On repainting 6508 - Bob said that 6508 sat in storage for 10 years at TMC - it did not move - and like any preserved railway equipment, the side facing the sun will dry out and stay in good condition, but the side facing north will essentially stay wet - wood will rot, and steel, it rusts. The Engineers side of 6508 rusted quite good and if you were close enough to it, it showed. Hence, 3 gallons of bondo were used in 6508, some new steel fabricated (as some holes were just too big!) as well, a new rear door fabricated from scratch - and of course, the paint.

Bob mentioned the paint scheme was conceived not long after 6508 arrived on the property in 2012, and any similarities to existing units (RLK F's for example) is coincidence - simply took this long to get the project moved forward.

A nice looking pair. Will there be more? We'll just have to wait and see..