Does anyone know where to find some good color photos of the interior color schemes of the various cars of the California Zephyr and the NP North Coast Limited?
Some people with Brownies and a flash as well as pros must have some color pictures. I have heard colors described and seen black & white photos.
Coror, anyone?
Most pictures are in black and white as you know. The post card below is the official post card from the Zephyr and gives a hint of the colors.
Rode both the CZ and the RGZ, including the first years of the RGZ before any changes to interiors. The adds are pretty good, particularly the cable car room picture. But you will find several colors used for the dome interior walls, and I remember them as being simple medium grey, not brown or yellow.
Daveklepper
Some of the post cards might have been colored added to black and white pictures and not correct. This was a common pratice in the forties.
Is it possible the dome cars actually used different interiors colors on each dome car since they had multiple domes on each train??
I don’t claim perfect memory. The main seating areas of the coaches were definitely not medium grey, and different colors were used, also different colors at different times. But my menmory says that all the domes had walls of medium grey, except where wall carpeting was used at the lower sides of the seats, and there I think the color was deep brown, but not under the windows at front and rear and not between windows or a large band under the windows. I think this was consistant in all domes on the train and lasted into the RGZ era.
Possibly the architect wanted to provide the least visual distraction from the scenery.
The book Streamliner Memories by mike Schafer has a picture of the interior of the Obervation car on page 59 maybe that will help Larry
i have an advertising video for the CZ from 1959 and the rear observation cars were yellow and the coaches a blue-grey. the Canadian from 1956 had a dark pink interior that looked more attractive.
I think Bill Kuebler’s book on the North Coast Limited has some interior pictures, but I’m not sure how comprehensive the info is…that is, I don’t remember if he has info for all the cars or not. In any case, if modelling the postwar NCL that would be the first book to get.
I wonder if Cybernetics has come up with a way for you to browse the general-interest magazines of the 1950s?
I’m not sure if NP ever ran photographic color in its ads (CP did). Yesterday I saw for sale on eBay two NP advertisements from original magazines of the early- mid-Fifties, but I don’t recall anything other than photographic B&W or B&W plus green added.
Also, and this might be a wild-goose chase or a hit: but there have got to be several volumes (if not more) of art books that detail the designs of Raymond Loewy. (IIRC he redesigned the NC Limited in the early fifties.) Loewy was so prolific that I for one wouldn’t order a book unless I knew for sure it had what I wanted: if your local public library accepts Interlibrary Loan requests that’s one thing that might work and is probably free. But first, you’d have to give the I.L. people the author’s name, name of book, date of publication, if possible name of publisher and (for the past couple of decades, anyway) ISBN doesn’t hurt. That means you might have to get a feel for the number and quality of the photograph-oriented books that detail Loewy’s incredible and many contributions to American design, and by implication American life: I myself would try amazon or alibris, maybe abebooks; you may know other sites that have worked for you.
Good luck, al s.
Okay I dragged out several books I have and began looking . The interior of the travellers Rest car had actual tanneed hides with the Lewis and Clark trail shown on this, The seating was dark red and the wood work was dark and light cherry. The NP observation lounges featured light beige furnishings and the walls and ceilings above were also light beige. Light beige was the colors used in the domes with seating in light brown. Color theme in the Slumbercoach was stainless steel and Beige with dark brown Pullman style blankets. Interior of the coaches was done also in shades of brown and light green with seating in light browns. I cannot find the information on the diners and I rode them many times. The interiors of the sleeping cars used much light brown and beiges as well. With Grey as I remember Pullman blankets. Hope this helps. In spite of many books on the CB&Q streamliners and I think every book printed on the California Zephyr they really don’t have any interior pictures I would rely on for accurate colors. I do know that each of the four dome coaches wore different interior colors. I suspect this theme was carried out throuhout the rest of the train’s interior.
