Does anyone know the color codes used during the 50’s on tank car placards? I’m getting into some detail work and would like to know how I should paint the placards. Most are just black but as you guys know, the little details in railroading make things so much more realistic. I’m going to try my luck with painting them but I don’t know what colors to use. Naturally, there are many different types of tank cars and many different uses. I have about 100 tank cars and am trying to spruce them up a bit. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks,
The haz-mat placards back were significantly different than those today. I seem to recall white placards with “DANGEROUS” in relatively big red letters and smaller black lettering. It seems like Microscale produces a set of the old haz-mat placards.
I know that I have found photographs of tankcars in the 1950s and 1960s, however, I cannot find any right now. I have found some from the 1970s that reveals that the 1970s was before they started assigning number to commodities. By the way, the website I got these from may be going away soon (the owner is fed up with it), so get the information from these links while you can.
Thanks very much for the pics and info. At least a few of them were old enough for me to go by and confirmed what I was thinking. They were simpler in those days. I did look into Microscale at their website and in the Walthers catalog and I could not find any decals or stickers for placards. I think I’ll be able to make them look good enough for HO by just capturing two colors and some very small and fine brush strokes. Thanks alot.