I went to the graphics/sign shop today and got a sample of "imitation gold" vinyl sheet , which is supposed to be the same as the One-Shot "imitation gold" paint. It is not as yellow as Frenches regular yellow mustard, yet not as tan/buff/brown as a dijon mustard.

Microscale has a set of SR diesel striping that has "gold" and "dulux gold". The dulux gold looks very much like my sample of "imitation gold" from the sign shop.

An unofficial painting guide of the period (well, from March 1946) refers to "gold" lettering for SR passenger cars although an interpretive note says that this does not mean gold leaf...rather it means the yellow color (supposedly Dulux gold) used to replace gold leaf. The same document in some instances uses "green" and "Pullman green" interchangably. I don't know of an instance where the interior of a SR diesel or steam engine was painted Pullman green, yet the paint notation for these indicates "green". Obviously, the document is open to interpretation.

A metallic gold paint was used in the 1960s and 1970s on the SR business cars, not the yellow or "imitation gold" I picked up today.

As a side note, the painting guide refers to the color for lettering and numerals on the green-painted steam locomotives as "imitation gold" rather than "gold". In photos of the green steam locos I have seen the lettering appears to be metallic gold...or at least that is what it looks like to me. The 1401 has metallic gold lettering, doesn't it?

Cabooses, on the other hand, are described as having "yellow" handholds and lettering.

Input from any of the SR experts out there would be appreciated.

Let's see...yellow is gold and imitation gold is metallic gold, but not gold leaf, or is imitation gold Dulux gold, which is yellow, non-metallic paint, or is...?

Stephen

> In my experiance, Dulux (or Delux) gold and
> Imitation gold are two different approches
> to the same problem, replacing gold leaf
> with paint.

> Leaf (gold, aluminum, or whatever) is very
> thin layers of foil, applied to using
> varnish or other glue, while imitation gold
> is a metalic paint, and dulux gold is a
> yellow paint.

> I suspect that there may be local variations
> in color and name use.

> Randy Hees


ssyfrett@bellsouth.net

As the streamline era switched over to the colorful diesels, especially after WWII, the railroads and builders were using metallic gold paint. PRR stands out, since E-7's and E-8's were delivered in the "cat's whiskers" scheme in metallic gold, which, I suspect, didn't hold up after many washings. PRR then changed this to "buff, PRR shade", which is actually close to what DuPont and others called imitation gold, and of course, it held up much better. Don't forget that EMD's styling section was a designer of many diesel paint schemes, and EMD (and GM) used/still uses? DuPont paints just about exclusively. Duco, Dulux (not delux, or deluxe),
Centari, and Imron are names designating the quality (and price) of various DuPont paints.
Since some of us are model railroaders, we've seen this used in model decal sets, differentiating the color from chrome (safety)yellow, and metallic gold. You can bet that the decal manufacturers got hold of EMD paint diagrams that specified "imitation gold, Dulux",
and I've seen "black, Duco" on such diagrams, so that's not out of the question. The decal manufacturers shortened this to "Dulux gold".
I propose that we specify the color as:
Imitation gold, metallic", and "Imitation gold, non-metallic", and that, hopefully, keeps things clear. On a wild tangent, DuPont apparently came up with "Imitation Aluminum" also non-metallic, and that's what the lighter color on Southern diesels was (very light gray). On the model front, a paint manufacturer came up with
"SP Lettering Gray", which, since SP lettered locos in silver a while back, is, I'm sure, Imitation Aluminum!

schwartzsj@juno.com