A shipmate of mine Mike Myers (far right) and several of his friends are building a replica of a Royal Hudson 2850, circa 1939. they are looking for technical date or colour photos of the train used to pull the Royal Train that took King George VI across Canada. What Mike really needs is the true blue colour of the Royal Train
Mike has also said that if someone has pictures the two Royal Train cars now located at The Museum of Science and Technology in Ottawa this would also indicate the correct blue colour.
If anyone has any info can you please e-mail me as we will be sailing for the Arctic tomorrow and will be gone for a month and will not have access to the Forum[:(].
I posed your question on the CPSIG in Yahoo Groups. If there is someone else I could send replies to while you are away, please let me know (assuming there will be a reply).
Fergie, have you tried the NMRA library in Chatanooga? Even if you’re not a member you can get photos and tech data if they have it. It just cost a little more.
Canadian Pacific Steam Locomotives by Omer Lavallee (Railfare 1985) on page 450 has a reproduction of a hand coloured contemporary postcard, which is likely to be reasonably correct. It is very similar to the model illustrated in the above link.
The book points out that the locomotive appeared at the New York World’s Fair still in Royal colours in 1939, and that might be a possible source of colour photos, since a lot of colour photos were taken at the World’s Fair, Kodak having released Kodachrome about that time.
As I noted previously, I posed your query on the CPSIG Yahoo Group. Replies do not sound encouraging. Here’s a typical one:
“Colour photography was introduced in 1936. Locating colour photographs for
the 1939 Royal train will be very difficult. The only colour I’ve ever seen
of the engine is on the 1939 World Fair hand-out. The back cover of CP
Tracks issue 8-1 has a reproduction of part of that hand-out. Original
World Fair hand-outs occasionally make it on eBay.”
The “CP Tracks” referred to is the newsletter of the CPSIG, of which I have a copy. The color isn’t the greatest though and I’m not sure if it could be used in your purpose. Since there are so few color references, I’d say whatever the engine was painted it probably could not be disputed as having the correct color.
This is just a question, possably a dumb one. Could there be a “standard” royal blue when it is associated with the monarchs of the United Kingdom? “International Harvester Red”, “Chevy Engine Blue”? Is there a specific “Royal Blue” associated with the royal family?
