I have an SP MT 19A motor car and going to repaint it. Does anyone have the Color number for SP Maintenance of way equipment? Thanks.

Is there any SP maintenance of way equipment of the correct color at Niles Canyon? I could go rub a Munsell book against it and give you an exact match.

I have been told by someone who has researched SP colors that it had only one orange: MW orange is the same as the orange on the end of cabooses is the same as the orange used on the daylight painted passenger cars and locomotives,

The SP specification for the Daylight passenger train color would be Color Drift Panel #28 for the red and Color Drift Panel #29 for the orange. There appears to have been a change in the orange at some time as the SP went from Dupont Dulux 5452 Daylight Orange to 031 Omaha Orange. I do not know if these colors were close or identical. The paint companies were forced to give up many of the matilic compound pigments, which were responsible vivid fade proof colors we used to see in paint. The Daylight colors were probably made with compounds of murcury, lead and chrome. When DuPont gave up on many of the matilic compound pigments, they cross referenced very few of the colors because it is difficult to do and in many cases exact matches are not possible. DuPont did not use any of the color reference systems to record colors, they kept color drift panels. They could keep making the same colors by using the same formula. But when the formulas were forced to change to get the metals out, they found the color drift panels to be in poor condition.

Much of this work was done by George Rust, a DuPont employee. George was also a rail fan and collected passenger train colors. When George died unexpectadly his data base was almost lost. It and a good deal of other information on passenger train painting can be found at www.railfonts.com.

I have seen information that 4449 orange was painted with Imron 5452U. If DuPont made this up for 4449, your local jobber should be access the formula and can make the correct paint for you. If you are going to paint with Imron, there are safety concerns. Be sure you know what you are doing.

Thanks for the help. I've been able to match the orange. Drake Rice