If I take a drift card to a paint supplier and get it scanned for a paint match, is the information usable by other companies or is it proprietary?

I'm wondering if it would be possible to create a useful library of information from scanned drift cards.

Paul
Seattle, WA

Paul,

If you have a color scanned for a specific line/brand of paint, the code applies only to that brand, thus proprietary. I don't know if there's a cross reference between current brands, I wouldn't assume there is but some guys out there may keep track of that for some popular automotive colors.

Some of the colors on the list were scanned from drift cards and chips so yes, that is valuable info to add. If you supply data to me that was scanned from a sample, I'll note it as such.

Thank you, Eric

Another update to the list for PRR passenger, freight and structures and SP structures. Minor corrections, too. Also updated all the links in this thread.

Web page at: https://bigeprod.com/rrPreservation.html

Another update available - misc. corrections and more Pullman color codes. 01/23/19.

what are the interior colors in the Lotos Club @ RR museum of PA?
I would like to use the same wall and ceiling colors in MINERAL SPRING PRR7099

Thanks for any help
Paul
I am first time here so I hope this is the right place to ask

Paul -
Welcome to the Interchange. Your best source for the Mineral Springs is going to be RRMPA. If they've done interior work, they may have the info you need. I have Pullman codes for some of the interior tints but I have yet to be able to cross any of their codes to paint brands and color codes. Hopefully, the specification exists at the Pullman Library and will be found and reported someday. Of course, Pullman, PRR or later owners could've changed the interior color design at any time. Wish I could be of more help. If you do get some good color info on the original scheme, please forward to me and I'll put it in the list.

Good luck on your research.

Stumbled upon this looking for something else.

A 1924 Simmons-Boardman publication on Painting of Railway Equipment.

Apologies if the link has been shared here in the past. I did briefly search this site
and did not find it mentioned.

https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id= ... =1up&seq=5

John

Thanks, John. I ran into that a while ago, neglected to note where it was and then couldn't find it again. I'll post a link on my Preservation page.

Mineral Spring is a 28 Chair, 1 Drawing Room Parlor Car, Pullman Plan 3416A.

According to Wayner, it was built June-July 1927, was sold to PRR and leased to Pullman December 1945 when Pullman sold its standardweight cars to the railroads, then was withdrawn from Pullman lease in October 1956 when PRR took over its on-line Parlor Car operation from Pullman.

Lotos Club on the other hand was always owned by the Pullman Co. until they sold it to Peter Tilp in February 1968. Tilp donated the car in excellent condition to the RR Museum of PA.

So if you are restoring it as as Pullman Parlor Car, Lotos Club's Pullman paint is what you want. If you are restoring it as a post 1956 PRR-operated Parlor Car, you might want to see if PRR repainted its interior, and if so, check with the owners of PRR lightweight cars that are in PV service, such as Colonial Crafts.

I believe the exterior color will be red, solid red and lettered Pullman while owned by Pullman, and red with gold or buff stripes and lettered Pennsylvania with Pullman or Parlor in small letters while owned by PRR. It looks like the car was always in NEC service.

Phil Mulligan

Another update:

10/23/19: Added new page for street and interurban railways. Added PPG codes for ATSF yellow and blue, CSXT gray, blue and gold.

Web page at: https://bigeprod.com/rrPreservation.html

Hi guys!!! Most of my personal preservation work involves older Dodge trucks so I'm fairly familiar with the Ditzler/PPG system. When it comes to DuPont, the "93" prefix Dulux automotive/truck/fleet enamel codes seem to be the most common and easiest to match. In my search for those elusive Reading codes, I picked up a copy of the 1954 Dulux Bulletin Number 11. Plenty of railroad colors there. For instance, here's a page which shows about half of the greens. 93-1881, CNW Traditional Green, a.k.a. Studebaker Clover Green, is located top center. I believe three of the five Reading greens are presented here as well. 93-72001, Chevrolet Juniper green, was also used by Allegheny Airlines before they became USAir...

NVPete - Welcome to the Interchange. You are correct that a fair amount of railroad related colors crossed over into the automotive finishes, your DuPont 1881 is an example.

Just to expand a bit, a good source for color chips that do cross over into the car/truck realm are the chip sample pages from the old color catalogs like the page posted. The names will be different but the color number would be the same. I’ve also used this automotive database to cross reference with some success: http://paintref.com/paintref/index.shtml. With DuPont colors, you’ll need a chip to match if you don’t have a cross to another manufacturer’s number. PPG can still use the old Ditzler numbers to get close but you’ll still need a sample for fine tuning of the match since the formulations are so different nowadays. I haven’t yet investigated if other manufacturers can still use their old numbers.

Thank you very much, Eric. It's a pleasure to be here.

Another excellent source, while it lasts, is the Sherwin-Williams "Formula Express" site which allows one to both cross-reference paint codes among various manufacturers and identify users of those particular codes...

http://sw.formulaexpress.com/

These alternate sources of paint color examples were instrumental in allowing me to ascertain the postwar Reading codes. If you bear with me, they'll eventually appear right here before your very eyes but if you'd like, I'd be more than happy to carry this on in a separate thread.

This particular Reading green not included on the page above was one of the paint colors utilized by Fairbanks-Morse on their Model "Z" hit-miss engines. The matching DuPont code is on your list, used by another famous railroad-related organization as well...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b1n8IgjBtlk

The only green left now is that "Woodfield", a color PaintRef has listed back to 1950 and one I am actually intimately familiar with.

Thanks again for the welcome!!!

Oooooooo! I was not aware of this website. Kinda like a Christmas present. The bad news is the public site goes away the end of the month. I wonder how someone goes about getting a gmscolor account? Something else to check into...

At the minimum, I’ll pull some of the color data that I may need in the future. Note to potential users... search for DuPont colors under DuPont, not Dulux. Dulux is now a brand name of house paint out of UK.

Please do respond back either to this thread or contact me directly, PM or email if you get verifiable info. The paint reference list is a live document in that I update it as I get more data.

Thanks for posting this. It’ll keep me busy for a while.