For you AT&SF experts out there: Exactly what color is “Santa Fe red”? I thought I knew until I started puting together a few pieces of equipment. My Atlas Santa Fe diesel has a relatively dark red color (warbonnet scheme). I recently picked up an Athearn and the red color is MUCH lighter and more orange looking. My Intermountain F units seem to be somewhere in between. I need to paint a cab unit and I’m frankly at a loss as to what color the red should be. HELP!!!
Terry (Ohio)
With luck you will get an authoritative response from Andy Sperandeo but speaking strictly as an observer, the color variations you mention are all to be seen on suriving ATSF and BNSF units – whether due to actual differences in the shades of red or the varying effects of age and weather.
Dave Nelson
Reds are odd since they can be so light dependent, but the red on my Kato ATSF E8/9 AB looks pretty good to me. Not far from a Chinese red, w/o too much black, it should fade to a orange red, so should have some yellow. Blue sky or sunset sky, or overcast all should have a different shade. I’ve had red Honda MC that faded with Arizona sun to orange red, like the early 70’s Datsun 240Z, we had a 2000 Performance Red Mustang that looked all different shades, depending on the light. That is not too far, but the reds of most cars is not quite it. I see them here, ATSF red on the BNSF through Illinois, and I favor a orange red for good light without too much early morning sky.
I don’t know how authoritative I can be on such a subjective subject as color, but I do have opinions.
Of recent models I’ve seen I like the red on the Athearn Genesis Santa Fe passenger Fs the best. I don’t have any Genesis Fs myself – I’m waiting for Phase I F3s to fit my 1947 era – but I do have Proto2000 51-class Alcos (PA-1s and PB-1s) and a set of Proto 1000 90-class FM Erie-builts, and those look good to me too.
It’s been years since I painted any Santa Fe passenger diesels myself, so long ago that there wasn’t a “Santa Fe Red” in my then-favorite Floquil colors. I painted the Athearn F7s on the cover of the book “6 HO Railroads You Can Build” with Floquil SP “Daylight” Red (don’t tell anyone!) and I thought they looked pretty authentic.
Speaking of books and Phase I F3s, the units shown on the cover of the second edition of Linn Westcott’s “How to Build Model Railroad Benchwork” are old Kato-built Stewart F3s from my roster (that’s my L-girder benchwork, too), and I think the red on those is certainly close enough that I have no plans to repaint them.
Merry Christmas,
Andy Sperandeo
MODEL RAILROADER Magazine
I looked at some of my Santa Fe imgages and there is a lot of variation in the red. I have one image of a four unit lash up and all four units are a diferent shade of red, I guess it depends how much each unit fades and how dirty it is.
Jerry
THANKS EVERYONE!!! I’ve decided to just use the standard Floquil Santa Fe red and not worry about it. In looking at my color photos it’s obvious that the red doesn’t match on any two units shown. Thanks again for your inputs. What a great group of guys!
Terry (Ohio)
it seems to me that the floquil water based paint santa fe red, yellow and blue are the more accurate of the original colors… athearn colors are somewhat lighter. the kato and proto diesels i have are very close and match up very well, some athearn crummies i have are a little lighter
Maybe the one message to be gleaned from all this advice is a Santa Fe roster should show a little variety in the red. You see some layouts where you can tell the person painted all of his (or her) boxcars in the exact shade of boxcar red and the lack of variety is instantly noticeble
Dave Nelson
Penn Central’s green rolling stock has lots of variety as well – ex-NYC Jade Green, repainted PC stuff, weathered cars, different batches of green paint… All of this can be modeled by varying the paint mix, just like with the AT&SF. It makes life interesting for us modelers 