I am building a freelance RR that I call the Chesapeake and Atlantic, and is an eastern type road existing in the 1960's. Locomotive colors are a solid D&H blue with white lettering and a white stripe on the chassis. Running boards, chassis, tanks, and trucks are black.I would like suggestions for paint colors or a paint scheme for RR property buildings. These would be mainly for anything that is not brick or block. Other buildings are metal and wood. As an example, one scheme that I was thinking of would be a gray with a blue trim.So, any ideas or suggestions would be a great help so that I have more to consider and choose from. The building colors do not have to match or even be close to the locomotive colors. Roof colors would also be helpful for those buildings having a shingle or metal roof. (something other than the typical shingle colors(?) or something that would go well with suggested building colors.)
Elmer.
The above is my opinion, from an active and experienced Model Railroader in N scale and HO since 1961.
(Modeling Freelance, Eastern US, HO scale, in 1962, with NCE DCC for locomotive control and a stand alone LocoNet for block detection and signals.) http://waynes-trains.com/ at home, and N scale at the Club.
Gray with dark trim was a very common paint scheme in that time period. The colors would be dark to hide the coal soot. Granted steam had been retired by the 1960's, but institutional memory is long, and would have stayed with the darker colors out of pure inertia. No white paint. Trim would be darker than the body shade.
David Starr www.newsnorthwoods.blogspot.com
From what I seems in books and images on line (leaving out the images of models, of course) there were some decent 'lighter' color scheme - beige or yellow w/ brown trim seems pretty common. White doesn't seem common (although off white is - maybe weathering from that coal smoke dstarr mentioned). Light green, everyone's favorite institutional colors, also common. Blue trim where I saw seems to be mostly done on modern restorations although perhaps the building as built did have blue trim as Victorians really loved their bright colors (sadly, the lack of cheap color photography at the turn of the past century doesn't enhance our 21st century notion of that time).Gray, beight, off-white, yellow-ish (tan?), & green all good choice for a corporate color scheme of the 1960s (don't think they went to supergraphics on the buildings yet, even while rolling stock/locomotives certainly had them - e..g SOO line white & red graphics or the CN noodle.
As for the roofing, unless it is some sort of passenger station designed for turn of the past century tourist trade (say a station near the beach front w/ stucco walls and tile roofs), normal shingles and roofing colors do apply.
The 1960's was a period of increasing austerity for the railroads and many employed colors for their company structures that were the same as employed in the painting of some of their rollingstock, particularly for structures other than passenger stations. One often saw boxcar red and various shades and occasionally combinations of greens, or greys (dark over light). Whatever the colors, they were more commonly of basic darker hues, since these tended to be less expensive.
These same darker hues also tended to show their age and weathering less, allowing their repainting to be put off as long as possible. Don't fail to consider that, being generally out of sight of the public, RR structures often went decades without repainting and might also reflect long abandoned color schemes used by the railroad from as far back as the 1930's (their last repainting!). Also worthy of consideration is that a number of railroads changed their paint schemes during the 60's, or during the previous decade, in hopes of attracting public attention and new business (the New Haven is a fine example here) and unused paints from the most recent previous scheme might be used up in a "final" paint job for some structures on RR property.
CNJ831
Good stuff so far, and thanks for the input.
I would like to hear some suggestions on specific paint schemes. What have you all used on your railroads?
I used a double grey and green scheme, mostly on the structures with which the public would come in contact.
Stations:
Towers:
Crossing shanties:
Brick structures get the green for doors and trim:
And the main station, a stone-clad structure, got green for the doors and windows:
Section houses, sheds, and water towers get a "dip job" in boxcar red:
Back in more modern times, when I still ran diesels, they got the same grey/grey/green colours:
Wayne
Thanks Dr.Wayne. The two different schemes for different types of RR structures is something that I didn't think about, but is very interesting. I assume the boxcar red is used is because the RR would have had a lot of it on hand for their rolling stock. You have given me something else to think about. Exactly what I needed.
I freelance or proto-lance the B&O and all it's incarnates {C&O, chessie, csx}.
The older 1800's stations around here that were not brick or block were painted green with red trim.
Since it is my RR, and NOT totally based on B&O and incarnates, I opted for artist's acrylic Crimson Lake red for some wood structures and a medium blue for others.
It's your RR, paint what ever colors you like, that's what I did.
-G .
Just my thoughts, ideas, opinions and experiences. Others may vary.
HO and N Scale.
After long and careful thought, they have convinced me. I have come to the conclusion that they are right. The aliens did it.
One of my reasons for using the boxcar red is because the colours I was using were part of the discontinued Polly S line of paints. I've since found reasonable substitutes, but have no intention of re-doing the red buildings.