Freight car colors

[John McCutcheon]

What are the best color matches for freight cars and cabooses.

[Jim Courtney]

Hey John,

Years ago, Derrell Poole reported finding an area of un-weathered C&S freight car red paint in caboose 1009 at the Colorado Railroad museum. He stated that the closest commercial paint match was Floquil / Polyscale "Rock Island Maroon".

Harry Brunk and others have suggesting using a 2:1 mixture of Floquil / Polyscale "Boxcar Red" with "Caboose Red". That is close to, but a little less red than "Rock Island Maroon."

As freight car reds faded in the high altitude sunlight, you could vary the proportions of boxcar red to caboose red for variety, newly shopped cars with more red, older cars with more boxcar red with some grey or tan thrown in.

The few color photos of C&S freight cars from the 1930's show a spectrum of colors from brown-red, to more red to brown, to salmon to almost pink. John Maxwell reported that the flat car under tank car CONX 5 was close to Polyscale "Oxide Red", much more orange than the other recipes above.

IMHO, just paint your cars what looks right to you, under your chosen lighting.

[John McCutcheon]

Jim

Thanks that's about what I thought.

[Mike Trent]

John, later this afternoon, when there will be more natural light through the window here, I will take a couple of comparative pictures showing some different colors, including Brunk's formula so you can see them all side by side.

[Mike Trent]

OK, here is as good a comparison of some of the cars and a caboose I have that I know what was used for paint.

 

From left to right:

The refrigerator car was painted with Floquil Reefer Yellow, and Floquil Tuscan Red.

The Type 3 Gon and the Boxcar with the open door were painted with Tamyia "Dull Red".

The next boxcar was painted with Floquil "Zinc Chromate Primer".

The next boxcar was painted back in the 80's with Harry Brunk's formula 2/3 Floquil Boxcar Red, 1/3 Caboose Red.

The caboose, all three of my cabooses were painted with Floquil "Zinc Chromate Primer".

I have others which were painted with various Red Oxides over the years, but I'm not sure what they were.

My current personal favorite is the Tamyia "Dull Red", #TS-33. It may only be available in aerosol cans. But it's very very close to Brunk's formula.

Again, bear in mind that paint, especially red paint, fades in the harsh Colorado sun, and that each batch of paint, some from Komak, some from other vendors, and the color varied some with each batch. So it may come down to personal choice.

Hope this helps some.....



 

[Bill Uffelman]

Very useful comparison Mike. Thanks for sharing.

Bill Uffelman

On Tuesday, May 28, 2019, 3:59:53 PM PDT, Mike Trent [via C&Sng Discussion Forum] <[hidden email]> wrote:

OK, here is as good a comparison of some of the cars and a caboose I have that I know what was used for paint.

 

From left to right:

The refrigerator car was painted with Floquil Reefer Yellow, and Floquil Tuscan Red.

The Type 3 Gon and the Boxcar with the open door were painted with Tamyia "Dull Red".

The next boxcar was painted with Floquil "Zinc Chromate Primer".

The next boxcar was painted back in the 80's with Harry Brunk's formula 2/3 Floquil Boxcar Red, 1/3 Caboose Red.

The caboose, all three of my cabooses were painted with Floquil "Zinc Chromate Primer".

I have others which were painted with various Red Oxides over the years, but I'm not sure what they were.

My current personal favorite is the Tamyia "Dull Red", #TS-33. It may only be available in aerosol cans. But it's very very close to Brunk's formula.

Again, bear in mind that paint, especially red paint, fades in the harsh Colorado sun, and that each batch of paint, some from Komak, some from other vendors, and the color varied some with each batch. So it may come down to personal choice.

Hope this helps some.....



 

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[Mike Trent]

Thanks, Bill. By the way, the Dickey Station was painted with Brunk's Red, and the Dickey Enginehouse was painted with Floquil Boxcar Red. Again, these 1980's colors were the original formula, not the tampered formulas that were used back in the 90's. Eventually, Floquil did restore the original colors, and then Testors bought them and shut them down.

[pizlinard72]

Thank you Mike. How well did San Juan Car Co hit the color when they brought out their rtr box cars?
Also, while Tamiya colors are still available, Floquil is not. How could you replace the zinc cromate primer color?
What is the experience in the group to simulate faded red? Use white washes during or lighten the base color before weathering?
Thanks!
Chris

[Mike Trent]

Chris, I don't know about the rtr color. I have always thought of "C&S" red as more red than brown, as I think of Boxcar Red more brown than red. Variety is good, though.

[Bret Crane]

You might approach a closer Red/Brown by using a Mineral Red.As the Red paints were made of natural pigments found in the natural world.Whatever,you settle on will be what you like (they are your models and your interpretation).But what I really wished to suggest to you and all,is try using a buff or beige tone to lighten and as an undercoad.It looks very good and creates a warmth that white does not.White is very much colder.Just my 2 cents. bear

[tonyk375]

Agree with using beiges to lighten.  

uniformity is the enemy of realistic modeling.

Paint starts to weather the day it is applied.