Great Northern Colors

[Anonymous]

I have a question about the original GN color scheme (orange/green with yellow separating line) that was used prior to going with the simplified scheme. I have noticed that different locomotive manufacturers use different greens - Life-Like uses a purer green that I prefer, while Atlas, BLI, etc. seem to use a more muted green that actually looks somewhat brown. Which green is correct from a prototype standpoint?

[jimrice4449]

The Empire Buider green is listed by GN as "Pullman Green". Guess what? It works. You're perception that some look almost brown is right. I went to Chicago Union Station to see the 1947 Empire Builder on display and I though at the time that it was orange and brown. It wasn't until I read a discription that called it green that I considered it anything but brown. Scalecoat paint's GN orange is a good match but not their GN Empire Builder green. Use their Pullman green instead. The yellow is actually an imitation gold that Scalecoat once offered as Canadian National yellow. I don't think they offer it any more but UP Arour Yellow is close.

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by jimrice4449

The Empire Buider green is listed by GN as "Pullman Green". Guess what? It works. You're perception that some look almost brown is right. I went to Chicago Union Station to see the 1947 Empire Builder on display and I though at the time that it was orange and brown. It wasn't until I read a discription that called it green that I considered it anything but brown.

Would you say then that Life-Like's "green" is not very prototypical?

[johncolley]

Another thing to keep in mind...your lighting affects color rendition! Also, at some point in time it appears that freight engines went to orange and black.

[jimrice4449]

The "orange and black" dated from some time in the 50s and was just a simplification of the original sceme (has there ever been a "simplified" paint scheme that was an improvement over the original) and consisted of omitting the bottom band of orange and the Dulux gold striping. It applied to both frt & psgr engines. Psgr cars retained the original sceme until "Big Sky Blue" came along. (Another step back!)

[GN-Rick]

The simplified GN scheme began in 1962 with the delivery of the GP30s. While
it may have looked like the green was black, it wasn't. Weathering, lighting, filters
(it one is looking at a photo) and age of paint job are all contributors to the green darkening or looking discolored.

[wjstix]

This question seems to come up every issue of the GNRHS's modelling section !! Not sure anyone will ever come up with a 100% definitive answer, guess the best bet is to experiment and choose the one that looks best under your lighting conditions and then stick with it so your GN models come out the same.

BTW I think the GN simplified scheme was pretty good - easier to paint I'm sure, but still captured the essence of the old GN scheme. Course my favorite GN scheme was Big Sky Blue so I guess my taste could be a little bit suspect....!! [4:-)]