Hi
Each railroad has it’s own paint colors and designs. What determines what colors it uses? Does it have anything to do with the geographical area or something like that? Or is it just the management using a color scheme they like? Is there a meaning behind the color and design?
I am trying to decide what color to use on my freelance model locomotives and I would like to decide the same way the prototype railroads do.
I really appreciate any and all responses.
Thank you.
blueriver
When most of the railroads started dieselizing in the 1940s, they did so with switchers, which were generally painted in a variation of the road’s steam scheme. When railroads really started ramping up and dieselizing for keeps, manufacturers like EMD and ALCo had their own art departments that would draw up a paint scheme for the road (which is why so many F units had variations of the bow wave and 3 or 5 pinstripes on the nose; it was a standard EMD catalog scheme). Most big railroads also had their own art departments, so a scheme often came directly from the railroad.
As for regionality and paint schemes, generally, the flashier paint schemes came from west of the Mississippi, while the more somber paint jobs came from heavy industrial or coal roads. Look at the paint on UP, D&RGW and WP engines, as opposed to those of the PRR, NYC and N&W. Of course, there were exceptions (the SP’s Black widow was still somber, and the B&O and Southern had flashy schemes). Some railroads attempted to incorporate colors from their regional base into them, especially the B&O (Blue and grey = Civil War, which was fought around their trunk lines).
Of course, a lot of roads paint was the whim of whatever president was sitting at the time. Who knows why the Milwaukee ended up with orange and black, or the C&NW has green and yellow (no, not the Packers!). And the Southern’s green came from the railroad’s president visiting the Southern RR in England, and thinking the color was cool!
Thanks orsonroy.
That is great information. My railroad will be located in the Pacific Northwest area but I have had a difficult time deciding on a color scheme. Your information will help narrow down my choices.
Thanks again.
blueriver
Sometimes there was a geographical connection–several railroads “adopted” the school colors of a college or university in the area they served.
Lehigh Valley’s “Cornell Red” probably is the best-known example. Monon used the black and gold of Purdue and the red, white and gray of Indiana University. Chicago & Eastern Illinois used the blue and orange of the University of Illinois.
I’m sure others can cite additional “school colors” schemes.
Purple and gold (a la University of Washington) might be a bit over the top, but then Atlantic Coast Line liked those colors…
John
And the president of the New Haven, named McGinnis, allowed his wife to design the paint scheme for his railroad in the late 1950s.
Isaac Tigrett of the Gulf, Mobile and Ohio liked the Alton’s red and maroon scheme so much, that after his railroad merged the Alton, it adopted the Alton’s colors.
Some railroads reversed color schemes for frieght and passenger service. In the 1940s and early 1950s, the C&NW used a predominantly yellow scheme on passenger equipment, but a predominantly green schme on freight equipment.
Not sure if this is fact or fiction, but Santa Fe’s classic ‘war-bonnet’ scheme was supposedly actually first seen on Lionel tinplate O gauge F units, and AT&SF management liked it so much that they adopted it, or at least, a version of it. ( I may have been ‘April Fooled’ on this, but I thought I’d throw it in here-is this true, or was I skunked? )
The Seaboard Airline’s festive ‘citrus’ paint colors were an obvious connection w/ the colors of the fruits that used to be a major part of Florida’s agricultural industry before much of the oranges, lemons and limes that we now consume were imported to the US from another country.
I suspect that the somber paint schemes on the N&W, Clinchfield, later C&O, B&O, & NYC, as well as Pennsy freight, Penn-Central, and even Southern freight diesels was an economic decision because of the filth of moving long strings of coal, and being in and around coal yards and other dirty industry. What would be the point, from a public image standpoint, to have bold and colorful paint schemes under a layer of soot? Simple, dark paint looked less obviously ‘dirty’.
Later diesel paint schemes like SP’s ‘bloody nose’ and L&N’s last paint scheme before being sucked into the "Family Lines’ and later CSX, . were probably a reflection of the somber state of the American railroads’ image of themselves, and many of them were trying to save money, no matter if it was reflected in the public’s perception of them. It certainly must be a lot cheaper to ‘maintain’ (or even ignore) simplistic paint schemes when there isn’t any extra money for deferred maintainence chores lying around.
Also, there was a change in corporate logo and graphics philosophy in the '60s and '70s (when everyone was responding to the hippy and mod generation and Madison Ave’s attempt at capturing the attention of that ‘generation’ ). That was seen in many industrial products, including the railroads. It was the dawn of the big, bold, graphic initials used o
Does anyone know the colors of the MA & Pa Gas Electrics?
If you want more info on the proces, with some great pix and artwork, check out Mike Shaefer’s book THE ART OF THE STREAMLINER, that is still available. It covers the major players for the mfrs etc (Cret, Loewy, Dreyfus, etc)and even has some proposed layouts and schemes that weren’t accepted. A very good source if you are interested in what went on in the paint and railcar interior design business.
hey drephpe - That’s an incredible book. It does a great job describing how the streamlined steam engines, as well as the first gen diesels, were designed and how their paint schemes were chosen. Got to dust off my well worn copy for a re-read.
BILL