Ford Canada Factory....

[Hanno Spoelstra]

Originally posted by Alex van de Wetering
Couldn't it be that the paint-scheme above is just for the black and white factory-picture??? Just a thought.....
I know some dutch locomotive factories used this technique. When a new locomotive model was introduced they used to paint it in grey and black, instead of the normal dark green and black which was normal when the locomotives were delivered to the client. That way the contrast on the picture was better, which resulted in more orders (?)

Nice thought, but not likely. With low-rate job-shop production like locomotives, with only a handful built per year, each rollout was probably an event in itself (just like the launching of a ship). In a mass-production environment like the Chevrolet and Ford truck factories, no time could be wasted at the end of the line when another truck rolled off it (let alone the extra paint required). I don't even think this was done for "official portrait" pictures.