Railroad Color Library

btrw · **Joined:** Tue Mar 25, 2014 11:49 am **Posts:** 66

I will try and scan it and post it. It's 24 pages, but will try 2 pages per scan. It's fragile so will have to be careful.

Will have to find the best spot to post it.

Fred Heilich

jayrod · **Posted:** Wed May 23, 2018 7:58 pm

Fred,
If you send me an email through RYPN, I'll respond back with my direct email address and you can attach the scan(s) to your reply. I'll also assemble the scans into a PDF file and make it available for all if OK with you.

btrw · **Joined:** Tue Mar 25, 2014 11:49 am **Posts:** 66

I also found the N&W 24" monogram for locomotives and cars with dimensions and color codes, Wabash switch engine stenciling location and painting codes, Wabash stenciling locations and paint codes for steam wrecking crane, water tank cars, locomotive cranes, and ditchers, and Wabash and Ann Arbor ALCo stencil locations and color codes. Also, full size Wabash Follow The Flag emblem with paint codes and the GM&O Diesel nose emblem drawing. These are too large to scan, and unfortunately the Flow the Flag emblem and the GM&O emblem didn't photo well even in sections due to the size of the document. These are all blueprints from the 1950s

Fred Heilich

jayrod · **Posted:** Fri May 25, 2018 6:35 am

Fred - PM sent.

Newriver400 · **Posted:** Sat May 26, 2018 1:14 pm

While coming up with exterior colors isn't always easy, it isn't beyond the pale for most projects. However, interior color codes are virtually impossible to determine. Pullman builder's specifications for lightweight cars made numerous references to the DuPont Color Dex Master codes. No one at DuPont or at the Hagley Library are of any help with this. I have spent a lot of time searching for a surviving copy of this document to no avail. I'd gladly pay a premium to obtain or have one duplicated.

jayrod · **Posted:** Sat May 26, 2018 1:25 pm

I vaguely recall seeing/hearing Dex mentioned but I have no clue as to what those colors were. I'd also like to know if the other passenger car builders had standard interior colors to pick from or were they all owner specified. That info is about as rare as Helium 3. The only interior colors I've gotten are for diesel locos.

jayrod · **Posted:** Sat May 26, 2018 2:37 pm

Revised list uploaded:
Revised/added codes for AA, MLS, WAB; added footnotes for confirmed contributions; general revisions; split list into Diesel/Passenger, Steam and Freight/MOW.

New link (previous one will be edited, too): https://bigeprod.com/rrPreservation.html

pwkrueger · **Joined:** Fri Feb 26, 2010 11:46 pm **Posts:** 72

Anyone have practical advice for translating DuPont paint codes into actual paint formulations? We tried tracking information down for DuPont codes we have and hit a dead end.

Thanks,
Paul

Paul Krueger
Seattle, WA

jayrod · **Posted:** Sat May 26, 2018 5:52 pm

Therein lies the bad news. When duPont dumped the old numbering system, the new one didn't correlate with the old. Axalta's system is different yet again. Best bet is to find drift cards or chips of the same color number and have it scanned by the lab, not a store. Maybe someone here has done that already for the color you're looking for. Product line doesn't matter - Duco, Dulux, etc. Some colors were used by more than one railroad so that may help.

PPG color codes are still good, though.

arjay3 · **Joined:** Fri Jul 22, 2005 9:50 pm **Posts:** 162

jayrod wrote:

PCook wrote:

The NMRA has had a similar information collection for many years. See the Bruce Meyer Collection:

https://www.nmra.org/library/kalmbach-l ... collection

PC

For the most part, EMD used their own spec numbers for their standard colors. However, they are useful in a cross reference to the paint manufacturers codes if all you have is the EMD spec number. A lot of the same colors were used for different roads. Only the names of the colors changed.

NS was able to borrow an original EMD paint color book from which they worked with Dupont and PPG to match colors with current formulations. This was only for those heritage railroads which owned EMD locomotives. I also worked with George Rust at Dupont years ago and he was quite helpful for Jersey Central colors. Found that the CNJ Tangerine was still a standard color in the 1980's.

jayrod · **Posted:** Mon Jun 04, 2018 3:00 pm

The list contains a few of the GE NS heritage units that PPG supplied the paint for. I haven't asked about rest yet - on my to-do list. DuPont supplied the paint to Progress Rail for the EMD's. I have none of those.

jayrod · **Posted:** Mon Jun 11, 2018 7:20 pm

Latest update today:
06/11/18: Added 1947 GN Empire Builder; 1956 SP&S GP9; WAB/BO Blue Imron; BO/NKP Imron Gold.

Would it be possible to make a sticky out of this or similar post so it doesn't get buried? Just curious....

Rick Rowlands · **Posted:** Mon Jun 11, 2018 9:14 pm

Your request has been granted!

Bruce Backus · **Posted:** Mon Jun 11, 2018 9:51 pm

<<The list contains a few of the GE NS heritage units that PPG supplied the paint for. I haven't asked about rest yet - on my to-do list. DuPont supplied the paint to Progress Rail for the EMD's. I have none of those.>>

You have it backwards. Progress Rail used PPG paints, NS used Imron and painted all the GE units in house.
We've had to touch up the PPG units, where the Imron is doing just fine.

Also, it is correct that we had a borrowed EMD color book (thank you Ron), which was color matched in its entirety to the then current Imron mixes, not just the colors we used. So Axaltec does have the info.

Bruce Backus
Part of the NS team that did the Heritage units so was there to know.

jayrod · **Posted:** Tue Jun 12, 2018 6:59 am

Rick - Thanks. This will work until we figure out a better way to link and/or present.

Bruce - Thanks for the correction, I can never seem to keep that straight for some reason so now I've tagged my folder. Is there a contact at Axalta that you can PM to me so I can try to get those codes?

Railroad Color Library

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