colors

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What color were plywood sided cabooses of the CofG.I have a color photo of one in faded box car red,but a freind swears they were caboose red.Can anyone help?I'm scratchbuilding two to list on Ebay and needless to say want the color to be correct.Thank you.Mike.

-- Mike (southeastmodels@aol.com), March 31, 2003

Answers

According to Allen Tuten's articel in the July/Sept 2003 "The Right Way" CofG cabs were painted as follows:

1901-08 yelow ochre 1908-48 box car red 1948-59 box car red 1959-63 bright caboose red

Grabs, steps, railings were yellow Roofs were black

Now my qyestions is which of the numerous shades of box car red would be most accurate?

-- Larry Puckett (ljpuckett@concast.net), October 04, 2003.


I believe some plywood sided cabs were painted "freight car red" but most were painted a much brighter red. Some may have been "oxide" red. It depends on who you talk to and what their idea of color is.

If you buy three bottles of paint from three different paint makers and each is called "CABOOSE RED", I'll bet they are each a different color. So, which one will you use? Which one is correct? The answer may be that the correct one is the one you like the best.

Colors as seen in slides and photos are not true colors and can not be used for exact matches, only as "indicators". There are many variables. Unless you know the formular for mixing the paint, you will not know the exact color. Even then, the color began to change as it was exposed to sun light. Red is one of the least stable colors.

-- Ed Mims (wemims@comcast.net), August 12, 2003.


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