what color should they be ?

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
1

Hello I am trying to find out what color these things should be. They should be 1935-45 colors .Gas can,k-1 can, oxygen tank, acetylene tank,water can, gas pump, oil drum, antifreeze drum. These things will be in and around a radiator shop. Thanks Frank

2

I freely admit I don’t know for sure the requested colors for those years.

That said, I would kinda bet that the oxygen tanks would have been green even then. I just looked up acetylene, and it is coded yellow. That one, maybe it wasn’t yellow back then. Also, back then guys working in a radiator shop quite possibly weren’t too caring about color coding. I think I would maybe do a plain metallic tank with a yellow cap. Anyway, I did a search for “compressed gas color code” and came up with those colors (the yellow and the green).

Since manufacturing compressed gases was, even then, a pretty technical thing, I would think the tanks likely started out with an appropriate color. Everything else (even the gas can) I kinda doubt was color coded. Or, more correctly, was painted whatever color the manufacturer or the “repainter” felt appropriate. But ya can’t go wrong painting a gas can red. Can you?

Ed

3

Hello ED you are right about the gas can red you cant go wrong with that. I did some research and found the they did not color code the tanks back then. And they still don’t they are trying to mostly in the UK but so for nothing has taken off. I did ask some old timer’s that I know work in small shops like that. And they all gave me different color’s. Thank’s for the help Frank

4

You might try your local library or antique stores to see if there are National Geographic magazines or other magazines from that era. National Geographic, even then, had a lot of color photos and color ads. It’s possible you can find photos of the items you mentioned.

I now model 1947, but my previous layout was set in 1939, and included a Texaco station. I found a pictorial book in the library about service stations that was very useful, Pump and Circumstance: The Glory Days of the Gas Station, by John Margolies. I was able to find photos of gas pumps from the late 1930’s…in the case of Texaco, they were red.