With the recent influx of quality streetcar models available, my interest in Pittsburgh area traction is at a new high. Can anyone suggest paint and color application matches for the following:
The orange for the low-floor Jones cars;
the maroon of the older, first delivered cars;
the red and white of the PRRy PCC fleet;
and finally,
the color or mixture of colors of the “cobble stone” brick paving used by PRRy on its city street trackage?
Color photography suggests a “Signal Red” / “Reefer White” combo for #3, but is there a better choice?
I’ve seen “Traction Orange” suggested, but also “Milwaukee Orange.” What do you think?
My memory can not place a color on the shades of those paving stones/bricks, and living 400 miles away hinders personal research.
Any help will be appreciated as work progresses on the city scenes.
I think you will find that the PCC cars were red & cream, not red & white. Now I’m talking about the bulk of the fleet as delivered, not some of the special paint jobs they did from time to time, especially in the latter years. Unfortunately, I can’t help you with paint suggestions.
There is a red and cream colored street car in the Heinz History Center. Maybe if you get in touch with them they can give you info on the car or who did the restoration so you can get the paint codes.
Hi - you might also try contacting the Pennsylvania Trolley Museum www.patrolley.org as they’ve got a number of Pittsburgh cars in their collection and could provide details on the colors by time period, etc. They might also be able to help you with the color of the stone pavers you seek. Hope this helps!
You will find Pittsburgh PCC color themes can vary depending upon how tight you keep things to the year(s) to be modeled (pre-PAT/post-PAT). You can also model colors to catch “all of the above” from the wealth of prototype pictures at Dave’s Electric Railroads = Pittsburgh. Remember this 1973 colorful Pgh-PCC #1730?
I grew up in the Pgh. area and rode on those streetcars. The newer ones with steel bodies were red and cream. They did have some older wooden ones that they used during WWII and they were orange but not sure of the trim but think it was black. Historical note: The PCC founded Kennywood Park as an inducement to ride the trolley.
Tom, Kennywood Park was founded by the Monongahela Street Railway Company, not the PCC. PCC stands for "Presidents’ Conference Committee" and refers to the design of the streetcars. The Monongahela Street Railway would not have had PCC cars. Hope this helps.