Does anyone know what would be a good match for the CNJ Blue Comet color? I don't think i ever saw a real color picture....& you really can't trust them anyway. jerry
Blue Comet Color
I don’t remember the colors I used about ten years ago when I built my Blue Comet locomotive and train. I think I followed construction plans from a magazine. I do know that I spent weeks of research before I settled on the paint color that was close enough to the real paint.
I have a three-foot wide photo of the whole train but the colors are much too dark. If I can find my source of the paint color or the construction article I will send it on.
Doc
You also should check Google for the paint colors.
Here is a photo of the tail car of the Blue Comet but I don't believe it is the original paint. It looked good to me at that time.
The correct color s always going to be a problem for early trains that ran before color film was available. Without a CNJ document specifing the paint it will reman peculation but definitely dark blue
I found the detailed construction project in a book called “The Seashore’s Finest Train: The Blue Comet” by Joel Rosenbaum and Tom Gallo. It was published in 1983 by Railpace Company, P.O. Box 927, Piscataway, NJ 08854, and 60 pages long. It is out of print but can be found in a county library.
The construction article is very thorough and details how to mix the proper paint colors. Tom Gallo lives in a neighboring town and I believe still works for NJ Transit. He directed me to a lot of historical information on “The “Blue Comet”
Good luck,
At Whippany Railway Museum, Whippany, New Jersey
The train was painted in a two-tone blue scheme. CNJ used a dark blue below the window line, a cream colored stripe and a medium blue above the cream. Suggest you fine a cope of 'The Seashore's Finest Train' as stated above.
That observation car is not a Comet original; it was a coach rebuilt into an observation by NJ Transit in the 1970s.
I can remember my mother telling me of ridiing the Comet in the summer time to spend time with her grandparents in south Jersey. The dining car Giacobini was an old wooden truss-rod car with steel plating laid over the wood sides. The interior was wood.
IIRC The Bethlehem Car Works made models of these cars.
The Whippany Railway Museum has info on their website about their observation car. Bethlehem Car Works no longer sells the Giacobini kits; they do have kits for CNJ's baggage, combine and coach cars, as well as Blue Comet decals.
Thanks everyone for your help. just bought my detail parts for the engine & spent more on them than on the engine!