Re: SPNG -- box car color

At the turn of the century, SP (and associated lines such as Nevada and California) used a dark, almost brown mineral red, called “metallic paint” designated by the SP as CS 11 (common standard.) Lettering was still white. The Union Pacific Museum has a 1913 Union Pacific (at the time co-owned by Harriman) paint card including this color. We have matched this color in modern house paint for use at Ardenwood.

Through the 1920’s, 30’s and 40’s the official Southern Pacific color would remain CS-11 metallic paint, but there is some evidence that the official color was slowly getting lighter. Even if lighter in tone than the turn of the century color, it was still a brown mineral red. Some of this shift may have been due to changes in paint technology from traditional linseed oil based paints towards enamel paints.

In 1947 the Southern Pacific changed its official freight car red, to a new color, designated Southern Pacific Quick Drying Freight car red. This was a much redder mineral red. CSRM has a paint drift card, dated 1963 which is likely a good reference point for this paint. Again, we have a match in modern house paint for use on our SPng box car, SP 10.

As operations on the SPng wound down after World War 2, maintenance was apparently put off, with the result that observers in late 1950’s referring to the paint color as “sunburnt.” This is a significant issue for those of us painting freight cars that live outside… Modern paint matching machines tend to mix box car red paints by starting with a purple base, then adding black and other colors as needed. The result is a paint that fades towards purple. We have worked with a local paint dealer to mix our match colors with red oxide, yellow oxide and lamp black (or modern equivalent pigments) so we expect the paint to fade towards a pink. So far our SP CS11 has tended to turn lighter, and greyer…

Hit me off list (hees (at sign) astound (dot) net… and I will get you a copy of our paint mixes…


Randy Hees
Society for the Preservation of Carter Railroad Resources
www.spcrr.org
Fremont, California