Smokebox brought up a topic below I'd like to break out into its own thread: "factory colors." Jim Wilkie posted a slew of information on "standard" paint schemes by builders on the early rail group a Yahoo some years back. great info.

From the earliest dazys through the first WWI or so it seems most loco builders had standard paint.

As Smokebox said, Baldwin - for many years - used a drab green. It would be outstanding to see a Baldwin of the period restored to this paint.

I have been petioning Bachmann to include green Baldwins in its HO scale model line, with the notion once people start seeing it around, it will no longer be such a hidden part of steam history.

Oh so many of those nice "black" locos in pictures of old weren't black at all!

Rob

trains@robertjohndavis.com

> Smokebox brought up a topic below I'd like
> to break out into its own thread:
> "factory colors." Jim Wilkie
> posted a slew of information on
> "standard" paint schemes by
> builders on the early rail group a Yahoo
> some years back. great info.

> From the earliest dazys through the first
> WWI or so it seems most loco builders had
> standard paint.

> As Smokebox said, Baldwin - for many years -
> used a drab green. It would be outstanding
> to see a Baldwin of the period restored to
> this paint.

> I have been petioning Bachmann to include
> green Baldwins in its HO scale model line,
> with the notion once people start seeing it
> around, it will no longer be such a hidden
> part of steam history.

> Oh so many of those nice "black"
> locos in pictures of old weren't black at
> all!

> Rob

You can find a bunch of Jim's color schemes here:

http://www.frontiernet.net/~scottychaos/ON_LINE/

Scot


sscotsman@yahoo.com

> As Smokebox said, Baldwin - for many years -
> used a drab green. It would be outstanding
> to see a Baldwin of the period restored to
> this paint.

> Oh so many of those nice "black"
> locos in pictures of old weren't black at
> all!

Unfortunately Baldwin green shows up as black even in color photos. See the photo below of Polson #2 at Mid-Continent painted in it's as delivered Baldwin green.

Boyd


Polson #2

bowens@rypn.org

Does this loco have a green boiler jacket only? From what I understand Baldwin painted the entire loco (chassis, wheels, cab, etc.) green.

Smokebox

> Unfortunately Baldwin green shows up as
> black even in color photos. See the photo
> below of Polson #2 at Mid-Continent painted
> in it's as delivered Baldwin green.

> Boyd

> Does this loco have a green boiler jacket
> only? From what I understand Baldwin painted
> the entire loco (chassis, wheels, cab, etc.)
> green.

> Smokebox

That's how I understand it, too. Baldiwn did paint everything green except for graphited areas, unless the customer specified otherwise.

trains@robertjohndavis.com

On #2, only the boiler jacket was painted green.

Boyd


bowens@rypn.org

I've often wondered about this when reading about the "Brewster Green" that Pennsylvania Railroad locomotives were said to have been painted in. Are there specifications or color chips for any of these colors, or an accurate period description? I wonder if what's referred to as "green" might not be a black paint with some zinc chromate or similar compound added for durability. Such a black-yellow mixture would technically be a green, but might still look black, even in bright light.

Aarne Frobom

> I've often wondered about this when reading
> about the "Brewster Green" that
> Pennsylvania Railroad locomotives were said
> to have been painted in. Are there
> specifications or color chips for any of
> these colors, or an accurate period
> description? I wonder if what's referred to
> as "green" might not be a black
> paint with some zinc chromate or similar
> compound added for durability. Such a
> black-yellow mixture would technically be a
> green, but might still look black, even in
> bright light.

> Aarne Frobom

Pennsylvania locomotives were painted Brunswick Green which seems to be a common color when I searched Yahoo and Google and not necessarily a "Pennsy" color. I do know that Brunswick Green is very dark.

I'm sure that given it is a common color there is probably a specification for the particular shade.

Back to the Baldwin thread, I have copies of the original specification sheets for the order of 4 heavy consolidations from Baldwin the LS&I railroad placed in 1916 which included the Ohio Central's #33 (former Hocking Valley Scenic) and Western Maryland's #734 (ex-LS&I #34). The original specification for these locomotives stated they were to be "Olive Green" with "Aluminum" lettering, numbers and stripes.

While it did not specify boiler only or whether the entire locomotive and tender were green, I have seen color photographs of LS&I engines as black with green boilers. I do not know if this was the LS&I preferred paint or how they arrived from Baldwin. I do know that these locomotives received some major rebuilds early on.

G

greg@nospam.skittercreek.com

> I wonder if what's referred to
> as "green" might not be a black
> paint with some zinc chromate or similar
> compound added for durability. Such a
> black-yellow mixture would technically be a
> green, but might still look black, even in
> bright light.

> Aarne Frobom

That's exactly right. PRR "Brunswick Green" according to one formula (word of mouth from a PRR painter who mixed it) is 40 parts black plus one part chrome yellow.

pnichol6@prodigy.net

>I painted a Mikado dark green on the jackets of boiler, cylinders, and air pump (sheet metal only). I started timidly adding black to green to darken it- eventually the correct mix for me is one brilliant green enamel with one gloss black enamel.

nnry3@mwpower.net