When FIRST placed in service, the FA units were light gray with a blue stipe along the side under the louvers and windows and across the nose. The top of the nose was also gray as was the pilot. The units looked just like the matching MTA passenger coaches they pulled!
Later, in the effort to afford greater visibility, the pilot was painted yellow.
Then, the blue was extended on top of the nose to the windows and the yellow was removed from the pilot, and transferred to the stripe above the pilot to just under the blue stripe on the nose. The yellow wrapped around the sides to just in front of the cab ladders. Later, the yellow was extended down to include the pilot again.
Also, when originally in service the units were placed on the east end of all push-pull trains, with the powered unit being on the west end. In the years following, this arrangement was switched, with the FA unit moved to the west end of the train and the power unit at the east end.
Dave Keller
