Of course, "just winging it" isn't very scientific and can be generally unreliable once and a while so I might have to come up with something else. With the weather the way it's been, I haven't had any good high-contrast sunshine to conduct shadow experiments but conditions should improve here over the next couple of days.

Then, I thought that maybe this is a decent time to test my new theory about the common lettering and striping colors being the basis behind the Pullmanesque greens and try to get some idea of what a scan of Reading Olive should look like in relation to the NPHRA card.

Although not quite exact, it turns out the initial results are quite promising. Bear in mind the Canon scans are less yellow compared to HP's so these turn out appearing more browner than greener.

First, I tried to match up the darkened 014 Imitation Gold chip with the NPRHA card. Using the same parameters, I then adjusted the 1290 Venetian Yellow and 1222 Croydon Cream chips as well.

On the left is the NPRHA card scan. On the right from top down are the darkened Imitation Gold, Venetian Yellow, and Croydon Cream...

Now, I still believe the Pullman Green and Imitation Gold samples included in the NPRHA set are actually those of the Great Northern since, according to the list, the Northern Pacific used the same 54015 yellow, also labelled as "Imitation Gold", as the Reading and Lackawanna, and that the NP's Pullmanesque green should look more like the Reading's like the Lackawanna's does. Since the Jersey Central also used the real 014 Imitation Gold, it's their color combo that should match that of the Great Northern's.

The B&O also used 014 Imitation Gold and the CNJ also used 5370 Bando Blue so this is what happened to CNJ #1000 when I lined up both the CNJ and B&O blues with the masked picture of 3380 GMC Ferrara Blue. Got the Pullman Green to really pop here...

My saving grace in all this, DuPont 54015 Reading Yellow is the same color as DuPont 1290 GMC Venetian Yellow, or something pretty darn close to it... LOL

On the T-1 and cab model cab models, the yellow is applied over the black which does darken it a bit and could possibly make it look more like Imitation Gold instead of Venetian Yellow so if any of you guys are noticing the slight shade discrepancy between the paint and chip in the above picture, that would be why...

Here's another look. The yellow appears to be developing some thinner spots as well so I hope the museum staff isn't getting a little too aggressive when they're spray-and-wiping all the visitor scuzz off these things... ;)

Of note, the Venetian Yellow chip is on a white background instead of a black one which would accentuate the color a bit more in relation to that on the cab models. Since my DuPont Bulletin 11 was already falling apart from using it too much, I tore the pages along the folds into strips which now make it easier to compare colors.

Anyway, if you dial up One Shot 191L Imitation Gold on Encycolorpedia...

https://encycolorpedia.com/ce8911

Hit the 25% Darker button four times and you'll end up fairly close to their interpretation of Pullman Green...

https://encycolorpedia.com/3e321e

Next, go to the GMC Venetian Yellow page...

https://encycolorpedia.com/f8c532

4X 25% Darker...

https://encycolorpedia.com/544826

Not quite there yet so do it one more time...

https://encycolorpedia.com/403822

Interestingly, this color ends up even closer to the Pullman Green.

Back to the Imitation Gold, when you make it just two times 25% Darker, it more closely matches Encycolorpedia's Pullman/UPS Brown which is obviously way too light since you need to darken it two more times to get it near Pullman Green...

https://encycolorpedia.com/6e5221

Then, there's Encycolorpedia's other "Venitian" Yellow page, apparently based upon PaintRef's scan of Ditzler/PPG 80504 GMC Venetian Yellow. Since the color represented there is more orange and/or less yellow, it too will come closer to the Pullman Brown when darkened...

https://encycolorpedia.com/e6ab4d

Enough of that but maybe there's something to this as it pertains to the terms "Pullman Green" and "Pullman Brown" although there might be some interchangeability involved, sort of like with "Imitation Gold". LOL It does seem, however, the more they are blackened, the more they will resemble each other.

Yesterday was a good day to conduct the first shadow experiments with Imitation Gold and Venetian Yellow and here is the result. I'm guessing you might have to add about 25% more black to Venetian Yellow to get it as dark as a Pullmanesque color made with black and the real Imitation Gold but that's just a guess. The shadow on the Venetian Yellow chip may be a bit lighter but it's definitely greener...

The NPRHA Pullman Green sample seems to fall somewhere in-between the shadowed Imitation Gold and Venetian Yellow. It is definitely less red than the shadowed Venetian Yellow which follows what I had observed with the olive paint on Train Master cab model. Since the NPRHA set used the slightly yellower New Caterpillar Yellow as Imitation Gold, I'm wondering if that's what this particular Pullman sample is based upon. Yeah, that might have to be the next experiment. LOL

These things are a pain to get to lay flat for pictures and the clear blue sky reflection apparently equalizes the appearance of the colors a bit...

Well, that's all going to have to wait for now since the big news is that the Reading's red caboose red is very likely the same color as DuPont 5027 Red as shown here on the chart right under 2622 Scarlet...

Okay, scratch that. DuPont 5027 is the equivalent of Dulux 034, not 028. 028 is lighter than the old Harvester Red, 7410, which is also listed as a Ford and/or New Holland Tractor color, so that's not it, either...

Madness to the method... LOL

So, if anyone else, including me, is utterly befuddled and confused by what's going on now, this all started with my recent acquisition of John W. Hall's Reading Company Cabooses book and subsequently attempting to answer Eric's question in this thread. Of course, paint colors just had to pop up again...

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=48261

DuPont Dulux 028 is the Reading's red caboose red and we've got the receipt to prove it...

The color I'm looking at is DuPont 1024/55141 Ford Vermilion Red which is on the VanSickle chart as #480 Ford Red as used on Ford's 8N tractors so now we can pick up where we left off here and there and see why.

Scroll down to Page 50 in the big list of DuPont tractor and implement codes and you'll find the Ford reds...

http://www.rodnh.byethost12.com/misc/du ... es.pdf?i=2

Dulux 028 crosses to G9346 but I could not find any further information on that code. Dulux 034 crosses to 5027 so that's confirmed while 7410 has been pretty much put back in the barn.

Next, we'll head on over to PaintRef again and check the Ford Tractor codes there. 1024/55141 Ford Tractor Vermilion is the odd man out and the timeline looks good also...

https://paintref.com/cgi-bin/colorcoded ... el=Tractor

Ding, ding, ding, ding, and congratulations, 028 is much more very likely to be the equivalent of 1024/55141 and we now have the first of what may turn out to be quite a few alternative examples depending on where else we might find this color...

Like 92144 Dodge Truck Toreador Red, 1024/55141 Ford Vermilion Red seems to have some sort of bluish element to it which gives it somewhat of a highly visible day-glow appearance. Like Toreador Red, Vermilion Red demonstrates the ability to shift from an orange-red to a pink-red often in the same photograph. Vermilion Red is darker and less orange than Toreador Red, however, but both could be considered to be a "vermilion" in the broader sense of the term.

Looking at a typical modern mixing formula, 1024/55141 is basically an orange-red tinted with a small percentage of violet...

http://www.mixmaster.biz/v_formulas/Details/8612

Ford used 1024/55141 Vermilion Red on its trucks from 1945 until the 1956 model years...

https://paintref.com/cgi-bin/paintdetai ... 246-55141R

Here's a nicely restored 1950 F47...

5027 Red is a Utah Transit Authority color, by the way...

https://paintref.com/cgi-bin/colorcoded ... +Authority

It's definitely missing that day-glow look and the violet in the mixing formula...

http://www.mixmaster.biz/v_formulas/Details/6558

Here we can see the original Reading red caboose red showing through the later coat of faded and peeling Hersheypark happy red on #92938 at Hamburg. Still looks like it has some battery life left, huh?... LOL

Technically, this color would be considered to be what they call an American vermilion once based upon lead chromate or toluidine instead of the traditional old world English vermilion derived from cinnabar/mercury sulfate. The traditional vermilion is also called Chinese red so whether or not that might have anything to do with the Burlington, I can't say.

Before World War II, from 1935 until 1940, the Ford truck color then known as Vermilion was Swift Red so what's in a name, anyway? LOL

Mr. Uebele discusses American vermilion in this chapter, apparently written about the same time the PRR was in the process of adopting Toluidine Red...

https://chestofbooks.com/home-improveme ... n-Oil.html

I'm still trying to figure out how I got this color so confused with Scarlet but I guess that can happen once and a while after spending too much time out in the sun... ;)