This morning, I'll be looking into the real possibility the Reading actually used their freight car coppertone red color on the roofs of their red cabooses instead of brown and I just noticed how much this color resembles the color of the brick the shop complex was built out of.

Since it's supposed to snow today, this will give me something to do. LOL Here's that Kim Piersol shot of #34 again with caboose roofs and shop complex brick...

I forgot I had posted the Linde Air Products colors awhile back. I had to go back and edit the name of the gray. I was getting Dovetone and Polar Gray mixed up even before I started really investigating them. LOL

The Ford Dovetone Gray on LAPX cars does look lighter than the gray on the Reading's Center Flows so I'm still good sticking with GMC Polar Gray on those for the time being.

Here's the Encycolorpedia link to GMC Coppertone. Krylon's Brick color is a close match...

https://encycolorpedia.com/8f3631

I remember when Krylon was a Borden brand. Here's an art acrylic that's a close match as well...

http://www.art-paints.com/Paints/Acryli ... -Wine.html

To me, that's pretty much a dead ringer here on the computer for the Reading's boxcar red I recall. They painted the cab roofs on the steamers this color also before going to black there late. Add building roofs to the mix and it would make sense for it to be on the caboose roofs as well.

It also reminds me of some of the local darker brownstone I see on older buildings and such.

I'm going to keep searching for good caboose roof pictures. Here's a nice side shot of one of the boxcars along with computer Krylon Brick...

I once knew a girl named Sandy Fay. She also went all the way.

This one's cropped out of my current desktop pic of #2119...

I believe the photo of RDG Baldwin 34 is at Erie Avenue Yard in Philadelphia. 34 was a DS 4-4-1000 despite the VO-1000 radiator housing. BLW had VO components in stock when the improved 608NA engine was ready to install, so early DS 4-4-1000 locomotives looked like VO-1000's.

RDG put the VO-1000's and the straight-eight (608NA) DS 4-4-1000's in the same class. The six-cylinder turbocharged (606SC) DS 4-4-1000's were in a different class.

Phil Mulligan

You are correct, Phil, that's Erie Avenue. The picture location is wrong on the archives site. It's the same brick color as that used in the shop complex in Reading, however.

There were always a couple of those Baldwins around the Lebanon area to haul the iron ore and pellet trains in and out of Cornwall. They were good pushers and pullers from what I understand.

I can't forget what effect iron ore dust has on roof colors, either. LOL

Here's a shot from Erie Ave. with #305 in non-stick Woodfield Green before it got wrecked...

Phil, do you have a good recollection of what this particular red looked like? To me, it always appeared as though this one could have been mixed up in a bucket on the paint shop floor out of the scarlet and coppertone reds they already had. Definitely seems to lean more toward the orange side...

If I was a betting man, I’d put money on red square on the hopper being the same paint used on the cabooses. I’d also go out on a limb and guess that the red was 1863R, which was a fleet color used for many years, thus easily available and likely less expensive. Could be way wrong, though....

Yeah, 93-1863 would be Swift Red so there's always that possibilty, Eric. It's also GMC Flame Red, by the way. Chances are pretty good the red on the ALAC herald is the same as the red on the Famous Reading Anthracite signs as well so there's something I may be able to physically match with the chips here someday. After searching around the 'net for a bit, it does look close to the red I see on the old Tyco boxes, however, especially in print...

Here are the Scarlet vs. Swift Red chip scans, slightly upsaturated. Good luck separating these two in old pics. LOL

Scarlet is a zero-degree straight red while Swift Red leans just a teeny-tiny bit purple...

Then we can add good ol' 066-H right in between the two. This color can look a lot like the bright red on Nickel Plate cabooses sometimes but that's always a good one for the NKP guys to hash out... LOL

Both Autumn Brown and Coppertone lean orange at around three to five degrees so out of those three very visible reds, Scarlet would be the best choice for combining with them instead of the slightly pinkish or purplish reds...

I found a confirmed use for the unassigned 93-143 Maroon on PaintRef as an entry from the PA Trolley Museum, no less...

http://paintref.com/cgi-bin/colorcodedi ... ky&rows=50

Chances have increased greatly now that this color is a long-time generic railroad maroon so it'll be one to look at when attempting to determine actual paint codes on maroon-painted equipment. It very well could be the maroon on those '50's REA signs with the 93-6202 Green, also.

Omaha Orange looks just like the end panel color on the Reading's designated iron ore hoppers and was probably used in that sense to mimic the original lighter orange on the Steelmark logo...

Omaha orange’s generic name is Safety Orange. There’s actually a Federal Standard for it.

Omaha Orange a relatively ancient color as well, Eric. That one probably goes back to the days of just pigments. LOL I wonder if there are any old catalogs for those from before the advent of pre-mixed paint?

Although I'm being fairly crude with it, I believe this multiple chip sample/old photograph color matching technique has some serious potential. With a little refinement to the process...

I might have to buy the book and scan the picture myself to get this one exactly right but the first attempt with Harry's Trainmaster looks like a slightly faded 93-1290 Venetian Yellow with the Woodfield/Seacrest Green...