Howdy Folks-

I'm trying to get the best color representation in Sherwin Williams' Acrolon to paint a caboose.

I have Pantone and DuPont codes, but they can't match them.

Has anyone come up with a 'good enough' Sherwin Williams color that will approximate a LV Caboose, from the 40's?

Thanks-

Mike

Hope you have a fat wallet. I tried to match for our Soo Line caboose red last summer and it was around $65 a gallon. Seems they are cutting back on deep base and the result is that deep reds are way higher than other colors.

If you have a Pantone number that matches Cornell Red, you'll have to get a sample card from Pantone and have it scanned by whoever is mixing the paint or their lab if they have one. I've never worked with SW.

Pantone is a color standard for printing ink and their number system does not relate in any way to paints. Hence, scanning the sample card.

I'd have them mix a sample first, if possible, to try out.

If it works out, let us know and I'll add it to the reference list.

R&GV RRM has an LV caboose they are restoring, Otto Vondrak is a member there and posts here often, but I am not sure they have made it as far as getting the paint:

http://www.rgvrrm.org/about/railroad/lv95100/

I suggest talking to Rich Jahn. LV caboose paint colors were varied over the years, so I wouldn’t consider anything called “Cornell Red” to be accurate until exploring in greater depth.

Rob

Thanks for remembering our project, but we're restoring LV 95100 in its later 1970s paint scheme, and I'm not sure if that shade of red was a little more vibrant than Cornell Red of the 1940s. We are hoping for paint in the spring of 2019 once some additional metal repairs are done around the window frames.

And ditto the remarks about PANTONE color codes.

-otto-

If you are satisfied with the Pantone color match, then you can contact XRite in Grand Rapids, MI and they can send you a full sheet of that color. XRite owns Pantone. Of course, railroads did not pick their colors out of the Pantone swatch book. They often picked them out of the Munsell book, which was the predominant color catalog system in the 20th century. So it's worth it to rub your color sample against a Munsell book; I find often the color is dead-nuts on.

As it happens, Xrite also owns Munsell.You

Once armed with a sheet of the color, cut off a 2x3 swatch (take care not to cut the corner with the label) and send it to the paint company. They should be able to stick it in their scanner (who makes the scanner? One guess) and get their formula.