Hello new to the form and I am inquiring mainly on the colors schemes the UP used on their interlocking towers but other trackside structures would also be helpful. Mainly modeling during the transition era. but any other time period paint schemes used on the UP would be helpful also.
Firstly, WELCOME!
Second, it really helps to know "what era?" For a railroad that used system standards, the UP changed its corporate mind several times over the years with regard to structure painting. In the 1930's and early 40's the depot scheme was Colonial Yellow with Leaf Brown trim, later the scheme (for depots) became two-tone gray with white trim, then the depot colors went to white with Kentucky Green trim - some depots and other structures has a band of the green around the structure about 3-4' from the bottom sill (not to exceed the lower window sill), then came all white with some stations having black window frame trim. I don't know when it started, but when I got back into railfanning in the 1980's the UP had a lot of structures painted in Spanish Tan and Bone White. Depots tended to get more attention than other lineside structures, but for a standardized road the UP wasn't always "standard". The late Terry Metcalfe did some depot articles for the UP Historical Society. His info, plus era photos show that a town might have a gray depot while the next one down the line was white, and so forth. Depots were generally only painted when needed, so the color schemes could overlap some. Many towers were brick. During the steam era many servicing structures were black (water towers, etc.)
Thank you for the information provided so far. To be more specific in terms of what years I refer to when I say 'transition-era' for my modeling is 1945 thru 1952 for the Union Pacific. So if there is anymore information about the interlocking paint schenes that is narrowed down by my modeling years the additional information would be appreciated; otherwise, thank you for the information so far.
A good source is to join the Union Pacific Historical Society, or look at their website (www.uphs.org) and see about getting some back issues of the Society's magazine "The Streamliner". The late Terry Metcalfe did some articles many years ago on UP stations and he had a number of remarks about coloration. Another source is to buy/borrow some ofthe UP color photo books from Morning Sun, etc and look at the background structires shown in the photos. There are (or were) a series of UP plan books put out by James Ehernberger's Challenger Press. These had basic plans for many UP structures and line side details. Some of the old UP drawings specify the color scheme to be used.
For your era, I think you might want to concentrate on the yellow/brown and the two-tone gray schemes. Walthers produced a set of their pre-assembled line side structures in a yellow with red-brown trim that looked awfully close to UP colors (as far as I can tell from photos). As mentioned before, coaling structures, water towers, fuel tanks, etc were black. Water columns were to be black with the large vertical pipe in white. Signal bridges and signal heads were black.
Thank you for the source information I am looking into it and finding it very helpful. With regards to the paint of the two options for my era would you by any chance know what modeling paints on the market that come close to or match those colors mentioned.