Thanks for your replies, guys.
I bought a few jars of medium blue paInt (Tru Color and Gunze Sangyo) online, and will have to try and match them to the pics I have to see what's closest. More than likely, I'll have a life supply of paint. Just wish I knew definitively whether late Wabash blue is the same shade as N&W Pevler blue for another project, but as Hawkeye Pierce said, one catastrophe at a time! Thanks again.
I did a couple of Wabash Units in the past and used a mixture of Floquil's Amtrack Blue and another color for those units. I will have to look up that mixture when I get home.
Here is one of the engines I painted with that color!
A very fastiduous N&W modeler, Andy Harmon, uses Scalecoat II ATSF Blue for his Pevler Blue N&W units.
Rick J
PS: I need to repaint the handrails!
Rule 1: This is my railroad.
Rule 2: I make the rules.
Rule 3: Illuminating discussion of prototype history, equipment and operating practices is always welcome, but in the event of visitor-perceived anacronisms, detail descrepancies or operating errors, consult RULE 1!
One problem with the theory that the N&W blue derived from the Wabash color is that a number of post-merger N&W diesel orders arrived in black. I've also heard the theory that N&W adopted blue due to an anticipated merger with the C&O that didn't pan out. Herman Pevler, by the way, had been a PRR official who was known on that railroad as "Herman the German". I suspect whatever the N&W people thought of his ideas didn't make much difference to him, and he was in charge.
I recall some discussion related to the anticipated purchase by the N&W of the Wabash and the Nickel Plate and this may have led Herman Pevler to adopt the blue paint for the N&W— No.23 acrylic blue enamel.
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/misc.transport.rail.americas/D69oEX7827s
As I recall the order of the day was to get everything painted blue ASAP and as a result the prep work on the locomotives was rather hasty to non-existant.
https://akronrrclub.wordpress.com/tag/norfolk-western-railway/
I've seen many faded Ex-NKP and Wabash units rolling through the Cleveland area in the late 1960s and through the '70s
Quote: Also, is this Pevler Blue, or was that a different color?
I believe that is Pevler blue in the photo. The N&W management wasn't too keen on having an outsider come and manage "their" company. Word is that they didn't care for the blue paint at all!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herman_H._Pevler
I would say the N&W blue would work for you and I often add a few drops of white to give the finish a slightly lighter, aged look.
A similar situation held for C&O's Enchantment blue taking over B&O's Royal blue in about the same era.
Others, more familiar with the Wabash may have better information. I'm somewhat speculating based on some fuzzy recollections...
Good Luck, Ed
Does anyone know of a match, or at least a close-enough shade of blue, to the blue used by the Wabash starting in 1960? The blue used starting then was noticeably brighter than the blue used in the Bluebird scheme, as you can see in this picture:
http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=2430167
Also, is this Pevler Blue, or was that a different color?
Thanks in advance for your help.