Paint colors for diesel cab interiors

[rlhelton]

I'm starting to paint some of my locomotives, loosely based on the colors used by Great Northern Pacific. I've searched throughout Model Railroader Prototype Forums and the Great Northern Historical Site but have been unable to find any information about what the interior of various cabs looked like or what colors they were painted. I must admit that I have always been terrible at using search engines, as most of the time I get replies, that nothing fits the listing I've entered, I don't know if I type to much or not enough. I am interested in the time period from the first diesels to present day diesels, as my railroad is set in the area of Northern Idaho and some of Western Montana covering a section of the Great Northern Pacific line I am making privately owned and therefore continued to buy newer engines using the Great Northern's paint scheme. I also allow BN and the newer BNSF to use my main lines as part of the arraignments when the true Great Northern Pacific was bought up by Burlington Northern.[?]

[johncolley]

Most cabs that I have been in as a student fireman, fireman, and hostler were a light green. Almost but not quite the same shade as the zinc chromate green used on airplane frames (a little lighter). Try an art supply store that stocks the small 2 oz. acrylic paints. There is a good one for interiors by Delta Ceramcoat #02447 Village Green. It looks good thru windshields. The seats should be black or dark brown. Older diesels control stands were mostly black although some were the same green as the rest of the interior.

[Anonymous]

For the new stuff (like the BNSF you mentioned allowing) IIRC the cabs are colored a kind of biege. I used to work at a company that supplied check and relief valves to EMD for the SD70, 80. and 90 series and the marketing types of brochures we got from them on this series had nice full width cab photos and they were biege, though it may differ with some RR's. John's mention of the green in the older units is exactly what I've seen in several vintage videos taken in the cabs of F's and early Geeps. Take care.

Greg

[AntonioFP45]

I've been very fortunate to have been able to visit various EMD and GE diesel locomotive cabs years back. (GP7, SW9, E8, GP38-2, GP40, U18B, U36B, SDP40f) The 1st generation EMD unit cabs I saw were in Seafoam Green. Almost the same exact shade of light green that you see in the interior of many school buses built in the 1970s and 80s. 

On www.railpictures.net there are numerous cab photos of diesels and some steam. Don't worry about being too precise. Light greens and tans seem to be the majority for the older GE and EMD diesels. The modern units today seem to feature tans mixed with white.

Cheers!

[newhavenguy]

There was difference between Alco and EMD cab interior colors. Alco's were usually light gray. EMD's were light green. The new loco cabs for EMD are light tan/biege. I believe this started with the crew cabs.

[SSW9389]

We had a discussion on this subject on the Espee Yahoo Group. EMD used both "Seafoam Green" and a Gray for locomotive interior colors. The gray may have replaced the green in later years production runs, I don't remember exactly.

[AntonioFP45]

Guys,

An additional note.

I looked at a photo that I took inside of the cab of an Amtrak SDP40f. The interior of the cab is light gray.

On another one of my old photos from 1981, I found a shot of me in the engineer's seat in an SCL GP38-2. The cab inteior is also light gray, so looks like this may be the norm for 2nd generation EMDs. (Yes, we were stopped! It was during an Operation LIfesaver event. Man! Those were the days!)

[nbrodar]

The older engines I've been on have either Seafoam Green, or Light Gray cabs. New or newly repainted ones are beige. Although, I've been on a few odd balls, that had brown cabs, and a few older CSX engines that had the top half of the cab painted gray, and bottom half dark blue.

Nick

[wjstix]

When in doubt, go with light green !! Railroads used that for interiors of cabs, cabooses, buildings, passenger cars - pretty much anything.

[wjstix]

BTW what's this about the "Great Northern Pacific"?? Great Northern and Northern Pacific were separate railroads until they merged with the Chicago Burlington and Quincy and the Spokane Portland and Seattle Railways (GN and NP each owned half of those railroads) to form "Burlington Northern".

"Great Northern Pacific" was a RR name Model Railroader's Linn Westcott came up with for a layout building contest MR sponsored in the early fifties, it was the genesis of the Kalmbach book "HO Railroad That Grows".

[ProtoWeathering]

They even used it in this ex-Army 2-8-0.

[ProtoWeathering]

Other photos from this day show the cab interior of this Santa Fe SD45 to be green also. My son, who is now 29 got an invitation from the holster at the fuel/sand rack at Corwith yard in Chicago to drive a locomotive. There were three SD45's that the holster just finished sanding. He saw my son standing there with me and asked him if he would like to drive a train. My son said sure and we climed abord. He backed the engines down the wye, reversing their direction, then pulled them on to the ready track. A nice experience, to say the least! Santa Fe people were always the best.

 

 I uploaded to another server, thanks for letting me know Antonio! 

[GMTRacing]

FWIW - The ex NHRR ALCO's we have in Danbury are the light (seafoam) green interior. An engineer who worked for the New Haven confirmed the light green was the delivery scheme on all the RS interiors he remembers.  J.R.

[AntonioFP45]

Neutriono,

Your photo of the steamer's cab  came out beautifully, however, on your photo of the SD45 all I can see is a small box marked with a red "x".  Could you reload it again, please?  I sure would like to see that shot you mention.

Thanks.

[pcarrell]

Here's Monon No. 83, an F9......

http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j319/pcarrell/Prototype%20Train%20Photos/aan.jpg

Here's a couple shots inside......

http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j319/pcarrell/Prototype%20Train%20Photos/adl.jpg

http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j319/pcarrell/Prototype%20Train%20Photos/adk.jpg

Here's NKP No. 426, a GP7.....

http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j319/pcarrell/Prototype%20Train%20Photos/aez.jpg

And here's her cab.....

http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j319/pcarrell/Prototype%20Train%20Photos/adi.jpg

And here's NKP No. 99, a VO 1000......

http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j319/pcarrell/Prototype%20Train%20Photos/VO%201000/9-23-06024.jpg

And here's a peek inside.......

http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j319/pcarrell/Prototype%20Train%20Photos/VO%201000/9-23-06030.jpg

http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j319/pcarrell/Prototype%20Train%20Photos/VO%201000/9-23-06040.jpg

[wjstix]

Tamiya "Cockpit Green" is what I use a lot. I know from recently reading about the NP that they painted the interiors of their cabs light green. Kinda like I said earlier, RR's seemed to paint the interiors of every- and any-thing light green!!

[Gwedd]

Fellers,

       Regardless of the color you choose for the interior, I'd reccomend that, when you have settled on the shade, lighten it up a bit more with either white or pale grey before painting with it. You'll have a much more realisitic look that way.

       The problem with using exact matches of paints for small models is that, in almost all cases, they will appear to be too dark compared top the actual item being modelled. The reason for this is the surface area of the model is MUCH smaller, and so has less area to reflect light.

       For example, I used to fly with the Navy. I was building a model of my particular aircraft, and so to make it as close as possible, I stopped by the Airframes and Powerplant shop and scored a spray can of the exact same grey we used on the bird. When I shot the model with it, it appeared too dark, even when it was outside on a bright day. It finally dawned on me that the actual aircraft looked lighter because it had so much more surface area.

      I tried the same experiment with some armor (tank) models using genuine US Army OD green. Again, the models were too dark, even though i was using the exact same paint the DOD used on the real thing.

      When I tried using the original colors from a can and lightening them up some, the match became much better. That's what I do today. I lighten the colors up a lot, not only because it gives a better color match based upon reflection from the exposed surface area, but becuae when it's weathered, it still doesn't go over-dark, which i see happening to a lot of models out there.

     Anyway, that's my 2-cent's worth on the subject. Find a nice interior color, then lighten it up before you use it, it'll give you a much better representation of the actual item.

     Respects,

      

[fifedog]

Floquil JADE GREEN ... if you can find it.

[wjstix]

Fellers,

       Regardless of the color you choose for the interior, I'd reccomend that, when you have settled on the shade, lighten it up a bit more with either white or pale grey before painting with it. You'll have a much more realisitic look that way.

       The problem with using exact matches of paints for small models is that, in almost all cases, they will appear to be too dark compared top the actual item being modelled. The reason for this is the surface area of the model is MUCH smaller, and so has less area to reflect light.

  

 

That's a great point !! I remember in the eighties Stewart (or somebody??) came out with CB&Q F units painted in an exact 'paint chip' match for the real units, and they looked primer gray whereas the real ones in looked white in pics or in person. 

[galaxy]

Remember these "rules"

The inside of a train cab can be any one of three colors: black, black, or black.

If that just isn't right, then it must be battleship gray.

If it is battleship gray, remember to weather that with 'grimey black'.

Stop all painting immediately when one is called to dinner.

That's all one needs to know.

[NS2591]

The GTW GP38-2 I was in a few months ago was painted Light Green. It was really shabby too...

[danceswithwolves49]

rlhelton

Just FYI there was no Great Northern Pacific....at least a real railroad by that name. There were two real railroads called the Great Northern and Northern Pacific. Ironic that you would bring up the GNP since that is the name of both mine and my best friends' railroads his in HO mine is S........however my best friend did drive an SW8 in the city of Butte, Montana for the Anaconda Copper Mining Company (ACM) and he stated that the cab interior was a light green. This lkocomotive came originally from the Great Northern.

 

 

 

 

I'm starting to paint some of my locomotives, loosely based on the colors used by Great Northern Pacific. I've searched throughout Model Railroader Prototype Forums and the Great Northern Historical Site but have been unable to find any information about what the interior of various cabs looked like or what colors they were painted. I must admit that I have always been terrible at using search engines, as most of the time I get replies, that nothing fits the listing I've entered, I don't know if I type to much or not enough. I am interested in the time period from the first diesels to present day diesels, as my railroad is set in the area of Northern Idaho and some of Western Montana covering a section of the Great Northern Pacific line I am making privately owned and therefore continued to buy newer engines using the Great Northern's paint scheme. I also allow BN and the newer BNSF to use my main lines as part of the arraignments when the true Great Northern Pacific was bought up by Burlington Northern.

 

rlhelton

I'm starting to paint some of my locomotives, loosely based on the colors used by Great Northern Pacific. I've searched throughout Model Railroader Prototype Forums and the Great Northern Historical Site but have been unable to find any information about what the interior of various cabs looked like or what colors they were painted. I must admit that I have always been terrible at using search engines, as most of the time I get replies, that nothing fits the listing I've entered, I don't know if I type to much or not enough. I am interested in the time period from the first diesels to present day diesels, as my railroad is set in the area of Northern Idaho and some of Western Montana covering a section of the Great Northern Pacific line I am making privately owned and therefore continued to buy newer engines using the Great Northern's paint scheme. I also allow BN and the newer BNSF to use my main lines as part of the arraignments when the true Great Northern Pacific was bought up by Burlington Northern.

 

[steemtrayn]

OP asked the question ten years ago. I'm sure the cab has been painted by now.

[tstage]

Looks like another archeologist amongst our forum members, Dave.  And, actually, this would be a more appropriate thread for the Prototype forum.

Tom

[CTValleyRR]

It was only his second post in 2 years.  Cut him some slack.