I’m modeling early 1960s St. Louis and vicinity in HO. I want to have a MoPac passenger consist, but am confused about proper colors - blue & white vs ivory (or beige) & white. I have a book depicting 1950s St. Louis, which shows PA1s and Eagle consists in a nice blue and white. But the only MoPac PA1s I can find (Proto) are blue & beige. I have a blue/beige BL2 already, and it’s not that pretty.
Did MoPac replace their white paint with beige or ivory at some point, or are the Proto models incorrect? Does anyone know if there are HO PA1s or E units with the blue and white scheme? I’d really rather go with the blue & white - the beige is kinda ugly.
I have a DVD entitled, “Classic St. Louis Railroading” from Pentrex that shows several MOP Eagle passenger trains and the colors seem to be blue and cream. Considering the state of color home movie photography that long ago, however, the colors may not be accurate.
The MP used blue and a very light gray, with a slightly darker gray for the roofs of their cars. I suspect the “beige” and “white” you’re talking about is really the light gray, which over time would’v oxidized and shifted away from its original color. Also, bear in mind that the colors that actually existed on the cars and engines that were photographed may not have been accurately rendered on film or in print due to color shifts in the slides or negatives, as well as faded paint; ambient light conditions when the pictures were taken; and/or the inks used to print the books or magazines you’ve seen. All of that being said, I think Life-Like’s version of MP blue-and-gray was close to the real thing, at least on their Geeps.
And btw, I disagree with you – I think the Eagle colors were among the prettiest ever used on any railroad’s equipment.
I have a number of 1944 - 1946 Pullman lettering drawings for lightweight EAGLE cars. The blue is called out as Blue DuPont Lacquer #246-34246. The window bands and skirts are Grey DuPont Lacquer #246-34245. The roof is Grey DuPont Synthetic Enamel #25055. The 2 1/2" wide top & bottom stripes are Cream DuPont Lacquer #246-52881, each having a 7/8" wide blue stripe separating it from the adjacent gray. The trim strips immediately above & below the windows are “Alumilite”, which I assume refers to a color or protective coating and not to the resin manufacturer. [:)]
The page from Peter Falles’ notebook on MP painting printed in Dubin’s PULLMAN PAINT AND LETTERING NOTEBOOK shows the same DuPont numbers, but calls the stripe color “Yellow” rather than “Cream”, and the roof “Grey Metal Protective Oil Color”. The Falles’ diagram is for heavyweight cars so it shows the belt rail and drip moulding as “Aluminum Painted Stripes”. Otherwise, it’s the same paint scheme as the more formal Pullman drawing shows for lightweights. The Dubin book contains Pullman color samples from around 1960, and among them are 70-132 MP Blue and 70-24 Eagle Gray. The cover photo is a color shot of EAGLE RIDGE in that scheme. The 2 1/2" stripes are a very, very pale yellow, and I’d go with DuPont’s judgement and call it Cream. I never thought of the light body color as anything but Grey.