The 54015 thing shouldn't have any implications as far as my choices for the Reading yellows go since it's only listed for the proposed E units which were eventually ordered and delivered as FP-7's. It would be nice to see what those E's were supposed to look like, just because.

The NP's Metallic Brown freight car red appears to be GMC Mahogany Brown so we'll try to determine how that may relate to the Reading's similar color here down the road a bit...

The Depot Sand color is actually very close to GMC Sahara Tan...

Awhile back, I did think the NP's Loewy scheme might be Dodge Truck Ponchartrain Green, 93-72213, Plate #117, and Dodge Truck Judson Green but the appropriate color cards provided disagree with that assumption... LOL

Since I mentioned Dodge colors, Dodge Truck Dark Green, 93-23796, is also the fleet color which goes by the moniker of City Green.

The Loewy light green is a medium olive and the darker green is a dullish blue-gray green. They both look like older colors that may have been used like say, back in the twenties and thirties on something else that I'm not aware of at this time. Anyway, I don't have any chips on hand that match up with the Loewy greens but they may be these two from the last two pages of the 1969 fleet chart from PaintRef...

Yeah, that's bit of a reach there but those two chip pictures look like they might work if they're saturated a bit more. Perhaps sometime in the future I'll be able to physically match the colors up.

Since I failed so miserably in the most recent mystery picture thread, I put the Cat Yellow and GMC Permanent Red together with the fan deck. Boston & Maine folks will know if they're right or not... LOL

No longer a mystery itself, here's the Permanent Red on a restored GM Futurliner #3...

Northern Pacific vs. Reading storage sheds...

Here is the Baltimore & Ohio's royally Bando Blue against the Reading's Blueliner blue. I definitely can't say they're not the exact same color... LOL

That's the bridge over the Richmond Branch at Nicetown Jct. On the other side of the bridge, the line comes up Falls Hill from West Falls and the Blue Line climbed up to Wayne Jct. for B&O Passenger Trains (and Iron Horse Rambles). On this side the Low Grade Line diverges stage left and climbs up to Newtown Jct. This is where the B&O power was likely headed. The Richmond Branch to Port Richmond was the straight move.

Note the pantograph is down on the Blueliner MU car. The RDG MU cars had an 11kV power line on the roof so that only the end pans need be raised but all the cars could get power. This saved wear on the pantograph shoes and the contact wire.

The rooftop power line had to be removed for the Center City Connection from the RDG to PRR as they would potentially bridge phase breaks in the catenary, both on PRR and between the RDG and PRR sides. RDG's power distribution was from a central location at Wayne Jct. and RDG did not use phase breaks.

Phil Mulligan

Here's the fairly recent view of Nicetown Junction from altitude, Phil...

https://goo.gl/maps/wKG3GjcSbZUQd7Ng6

Scroll northward to find Wayne Junction. There's still lots of SEPTA activity in that general area.

This is the entire picture uncropped. Looks like it's going to be a gorgeous day, not a cloud in the sky. I tried to enhance the color slightly. As an extra added bonus, one of the cars is featuring the Narva Green window band...

Jersey Central's boxes appear to be the darker Mahogany Brown, well, at least until they started going crazy with the bright Swift-like red... LOL

Easily my favorite Swift Red paint job...

I'm still not convinced that Bando Blue is the same color as Mariner Blue, however, but I do believe the CNJ used Swift Red...

The second CNJ SD40 is 3067, The Red Baron. People called it Coast Guard Red at the time and, per USCG, Coast Guard red is defined as PMS 179 C.

The EL power does not mean this is a ConRail train. After CNJ withdrew from Pennsylvania, the operated the EL connection with a through Elizabethport-Scranton train with pooled power via CNJ's High Bridge Branch.

Phil Mulligan

Yeah Phil, I always thought that CNJ scheme looked more like the Coast Guard's icebreakers. LOL Pantone 179C is an orange-red with a hue angle of four degrees while Scarlet and Swift Red are both true reds at zero degrees according to the PaintRef scans.

2022 will mark the 55th anniversary of the USCG's "racing stripe" livery and we already know the guy who had a hand in designing it...

https://coastguard.dodlive.mil/2017/04/ ... ng-stripe/

The other Coast Guard red is Seal Scarlet, Pantone 200C, which leans toward the pink-red side. Here's a nice little chart featuring all their colors...

http://itgroup.cgaux.org/documents/Coas ... _Chart.pdf

The one older General Motors fleet blue we haven't looked at yet is GMC Ferrara Blue, 93-3380, Plate #83, which is another one of those ancient colors which originated way back in the thirties around the same time the B&O adopted Bando Blue. Here it is on a restored 1949...