Re: C&S Passenger Paint Scheme

Mike is partly correct, in that the C&S did use a lighter color that the deep, dark pullman green that the Grande used. As for Floquil coach green...it dosen't come close. Too light...kind of looks like something left on the floor of the mens room after drinking a case of bad beer.
Hol Wagner, author of the Colorado Road, and present editor of the Burlington magazine, first gave me the idea of the color. I obtained the sample of the original wood from RPO #13 when it was still covered with a tarp at Georgetown, and before it went to Ordway Correctional Facility, for restoration. With the cooperation of the Colorado Historical Society and their Chief of Restoration, he and I removed a piece of the forward left side of RPO #13...about three inches long and about two inches wide. After a week of very delicate chemical and removal by sanding on about a 1/2 degree angle with ULTRA fine sandpaper
(the kind for polishing an airbrush needle) we uncovered at least a dozen coats of paint and primer. All color coats seemed to be the same aproximate color. We uncovered enough to get a 2mm wide sample and analyzed it under a color analyzer (Eseco Speedmaster reflection color densitometer) and compared it to a 8 X 8" color sample of Model Master (well mixed) model paint...air brushed upon a piece of white styrene, with three coats. Our analysis, under a color controled light source within the densitometer, viewing by tungstgen and 6000 degreen Kelvin daylight source leads us to believe that lacking an actual bucket of the original paint, the Model Master Dark Green is within 5% accurate of the original color. Mike is right in that the color was slightly lighter. It also had more yellow in it, as confirmed by our reflection densitometer. Rick Steele, of Cheyenne, one of the preeminent scholars of the C&S agrees with the color, but adds that although the trucks were also the same C&S green, the paint scraping he did indicate black on the hand holding hardware. Steel is unsure if this was done for the display era of C&S cars or for standard use. Regardless, the paint samples from RPO #13 gave been analyzed with very sophisticated equipment and confirm author Hol Wagners original opinion. Our color sample was given to the CHS for the Ordway restoration, and was received gladly. Whether or not they use that information is entirely up to the CHS restoration people. Sometime they seem to go their own direction, scientific data or not.
I used this Model Master color and was delighted with the results, on my many On3 coaches. Opinions be damned, it's hard to argue with actual comparrisons with the original and scientific data to back it up.