Nick,Have you posted your question at the Central of Georgia Railway Historical Society web site Q&A Forum?www.cofg.orgI suspect you will get a rapid response from some very knowledgable people.Off hand, I would say 405 would have been painted one of the Pullman Green shades. Which one? I'm not sure you will get a good answer to that one. Any Duco or Dulux paint number (like specified for the GP-18s) will not cross to current paint numbers.If you are interested, I could send you a PPG formula for the ACL Pullman green we have used. This was matched from an ACL color drift panel, so we are certain it was one shade of Pullman Green.So how are things in Duluth?

You best source of information is probably the carbody you are restoring.You can sand a "window" in the paint through all the layers, to get an idea of how many times it was painted, and what colors. You can also look just inside the doorways or in other spots where original paint would be protected. It can take a bit of skilled interpetation to understand what you are seeing, but it is a record of how your specific car was painted.With all of that being said, if it turns out to have been one of the many "pullman greens" or "Dark Olives" which dominated passenger car paint you can probably safely get away with someone else's mix. While there were specific "pullman" colors for most every line, there was probably as much variation from paint batch to paint batch as there was from offical sample to offical sample.

As Randy says, check the carbody in hidden areas. Before we found a photo of ACL RPO 13 in the purple and silver paint scheme, I was able to locate a few small patches of purple paint on a door where it had not been sandblasted when converted to MOW service. I was lucky...no sanding was required.If you need to remove the doors for repairs, take a close look at the edges hidden by the door frame. You might get lucky, too.Allen Tuten (president of CGRHS) responded to a question posted on the CGRHS web site that the green color used on the passenger cars was simply describes as "dark green". "Pullman Green" was not mentioned in the description of CofGa equipment.

In addition to checking for untouched swatches of paint in hidden areas, I would also recommend sanding to look for evidence of lettering covered by latter layers of paint. This is important as railroads tended to use their own individual fonts or variances of "extended roman." While it may seem un-necessary in the larger view of things - being able to locate this original lettering and make tracings will prove to be tremendously useful in accurately replicating the lettering when the other work is finished. Again, it may seem like a small thing - like frosting on a birthday cake - but it will also be the first thing that people notice.Tom Cornillie

Yes, good idea, Tom, but here is another area where the CGRHS has good documentation. Like most railroads, the CofGa didn't have anything that was "standard". Don't believe "Railroad Roman" will suffice! It won't. We have several different CofGa fonts documented, thanks to the work of Allen Tuten. Some were developed from measurements of lettering remaining on cars (a car here in Albany has remnants of two different fonts) while some were developed from photographic documentation and stencilling diagrams. Depending on what time frame the 405 is to represent, I'd again suggest posting a question in the Q&A Forum at CGRHS web site www.cofg.org .CGRHS has promoted many new CofGa model railroad items, to the extent of providing accurate drawings, lettering styles and color information so that the models would be as accurate as possible. It doesn't always help, but many times it does.The society will make available any information it has available for restoration projects as well. For instance, I already have the necessary painting information for restoring CG 1 when it finally comes back to Savannah. And I think I could do a good job painting a certain CofGa RS-3 in the original blue/grey/black scheme with what I have been able to get from the society. (Hint, hint TVRM)Lastly, if you are interested in the CofGa, our annual membership meeting is the weekend of October 7-9, which I know is an overlap with ARM in Strasburg, but we will be in Savannah having a good time. Check out the meeting information at the web site, and consider joining CGRHS.

Nick, Where is this car located? When I was working for the museum in Savannah, we repainted the bag car there Pullman green with gold lettering based on an old photo we had found of shortly after it was taken out of service. Unfortunately, no one ever got around to painting the star right below the car number that was shown in the photos. Car was a coach converted to a bag in 1949. Rudd