Easy Sharpening Up of your Passenger Car Interiors.

[AntonioFP45]

For my NH streamlined cars (E&B Valley), I plan on painting the window shades medium gray primer and trim the bottom with a darkened aluminum.

[csmith9474]

Check out this link. I quickly looked over the NH cars, and the shades appeared silver.

http://www.trainweb.org/passengercars/

[BigRusty]

I have asked this queston about window shade colors on the NHRHTA forum and never got a response. I can't believe that some living soul somewhere doesn't know the answer to this. The outside color is clearly visible on broadside color shots but very difficilt to discern on the Osagood Bradley AF cars and on the SS cars they look to be a medium grey or silver gray with a silver (Aluminum?) handle strip across the bottom. Enigma: The shades are the most visible apurtenance on a passenger car and no one knows what color they were.

[csmith9474]

QUOTE: Originally posted by BigRusty

This a very informative thread. I think interior detailing of pasenger cars is long overdue. I have put window shades in all of my NH OG AF cars and 8600 stainless steel lightweights. As I recall window shades were differant colors on the inside than the out side. They are so visible they are a MUST as far as I am concerned. If anyone knows the colors of the NH fleet please let me know. I used a darkish green for the Osgood Bradley cars and a medium gray for the SS cars and varied their height in each window. Just guessing but it looks fabulous.

Try raising David Telesha. It seems that not only is NH his specialty, but also his passion.[:)]

[BigRusty]

This a very informative thread. I think interior detailing of pasenger cars is long overdue. I have put window shades in all of my NH OG AF cars and 8600 stainless steel lightweights. As I recall window shades were differant colors on the inside than the out side. They are so visible they are a MUST as far as I am concerned. If anyone knows the colors of the NH fleet please let me know. I used a darkish green for the Osgood Bradley cars and a medium gray for the SS cars and varied their height in each window. Just guessing but it looks fabulous.

[csmith9474]

QUOTE: Originally posted by AntonioFP45

CSmith,

Intersting about the orange. That's virtually the same exact same shade of orange that Penn Central had on their Budd Metroliner Club Car seats.

What's the name of the orange that you used?

I will have to see when I get home. The Santa Fe printed description said it was a "burnt orange", but the orange I used more closely resembled all the photographs and colored drawings I have seen. It was some kind of reefer orange that was the exact color I was looking for (Floquil spray can).

[AntonioFP45]

CSmith,

Intersting about the orange. That's virtually the same exact same shade of orange that Penn Central had on their Budd Metroliner Club Car seats.

What's the name of the orange that you used?

[csmith9474]

Thanks.

The carpet in the Hi Level coaches should be a mottled brown, and the carpet on the floor in the Hi level diners was a mottled green. I will look when I get home, but on the walls, below the windows were turquoise, and above the windows were beige with mahogany panels running along the window strip. The orange is correct for the dining car seats, I do think the turquoise is a little off in the diner, but I can live with that. I am still researching the intereior colors for the sleepers. For the bedrooms or roomettes with the weights in them, I will just have the shades drawn all the way down.

As I said before, those Preiser figures are definately worth every penny.[:D]

[AntonioFP45]

CSSmith,

You're the man! Beautiful work!

On a scale of 1 to 10........Looks like a 20!

A friend of mine has a Santa Fe high level car painted in Amtrak. He's not sure about painting his interior. I've saved your photos and am going to e-mail them to him.

Thanks for sharing.

[csmith9474]

Here are some interiors for Santa Fe Hi Level interiors I am working on. I still have a little touch up work to do, as well as the walls on the inside of the car body.





Below are scratch built interiors for a Regal 4-4-2 and Palm 10-6 sleepers.

[AntonioFP45]

Eddy,

Great idea about the handrail. Amazing what details many of us can add to spice up our passenger cars.

[David_Telesha]

QUOTE: Can anyone tell me generally what the #s were in the number boards? I'm guessing it matched a # on the passengers ticket or it was the railroads accounting #.

How about the train number (from the TT).

[Eddystone]

Walthers lightweight Pullman Sleepers: I have some 4 4 2s and 10-5s. I'm painting the interiors and adding people. I found that the Preiser passengers fit good in the seats with only a couple of the men needing their feet cut off, women and children fit fine.

Another thing I have done that is easy is adding the stainless steel hand rail that is located in the isles in front of the windows. For those I used Micro Scale 1" and 2" silver striping decals on the inside of the windows. really looks good. Also added window shades made from paint sample strips from Home Depot.

Another thing I will add are Pullman line number boards located in the vestibual end of the cars, made by The Coach Yard. The only thing is I don't know what numbers to put in them. Can anyone tell me generally what the #s were in the number boards? I'm guessing it matched a # on the passengers ticket or it was the railroads accounting #.

[David_Telesha]

I saw that, but I was just clarifying what Rick said/you posted since you didn't say which NH passenger cars had the RB seats..[8D]

If you want to get fancy you could paint the white head rest cover thingy's (can't think of the fancy name).

With the Walther's coach and obs, the differences are the windows, inside plan, and the outside details (roof vents), and underside details. I have no idea what numbers Walthers is giving with these - not-withstanding the lack of prototype. They are nice cars - hopefully they'll do different prototypes.

-----------------

BTW - I left out in my previous post, the Branchline sleeper kits - those are accurate too - they are kit forms of the same type Walthers sleepers.

[AntonioFP45]

CSmith, thanks for sharing that. I've read various times that fitting passengers onto an interior can be a little challenging.

David, Thanks for your kind E-mail and info that you sent me last week..

You're correct. NHRRJet (Rick) posted the info about the Royal Blue seats a few pages back. I plan on installing seats in my "Stainless Steel Turtles" from E&B Valley.

Good to know the info regarding the heavyweight cars. Is the difference between the prototype NH heavyweight cars and the HO models mainly the window arrangements? Body styles seem similar, but I could be mistaken.

BTW: Tell Rick Abramson to stop being a stranger and pop in sometime on the forum!

[David_Telesha]

Antonio,

The seats in the NH Stainless Steel coaches were royal blue.

That doesn't cover the HW cars which had different colors, including green, and I don't know about the Bradley lightweights.

BTW, the Walther's observation and coach offered by Walthers in "NH" paint do not have a NH prototype - meaning that they are "bogey's".

However the Walthers Sleepers are OK as are the Branchline coach kits.

[csmith9474]

I did not have to trim legs or butts. They are a nice fit for the interior kits that I got for my TSP Hi Level cars. There was one fella that is a little robust that could have used a little trimming, but I left him as is. I really liked the one with the newspaper. I have a feeling that once I install them into my Walther's cars I will need to trim. The interiors for my Palm and Regal sleepers are scratch built (I have done the partitions so far), so I need to figure out the correct height for the berths and seating in the rooms.

[AntonioFP45]

CSmith,

Did you have to do any "leg cutting" to get them to fit?

[csmith9474]

I just installed the first batch of Preiser seated passengers in my Hi Level cars, and WOW, what a difference. They are a little pricey, but Preiser does a great job painting these things. Passengers make the passenger train. I was able to distribute one pack of passengers (36) between a 68 seat and 72 seat coach with reasonable results. I just had to distribute them properly.
BTW, Walther's has these on sale right now.

[AntonioFP45]

Dave,

Very Impressive! Your info and the link that you provided is TOP NOTCH. Thanks so much for contributing to this thread!

I hope that eventually some of the modelers that have posted here will post their photos on this forum. I plan on posting photos of my work after I finish my Rivorossi's and Walthers Budds interiors.

IMHO, MRR magaziner should consider gathering info of this type and posting it in a magazine article or website.

[Anonymous]

Its me again.

Went to the library and found out there were more books on another floor with trains. I checked out 4 more books, 2 on ACL, 1 on Amtrak, and 1 called Streamliner: NY to FL. (One being a general ACL and the other being passenger service of the ACL)

A ton of colorful interior pictures that I shall scan and put on a website to post here. And what isn't in color is in text I believe.

I also was reading through the 3 volumes of Passenger Train Journal that they had and picked out some more interior colors:

ROCK ISLAND:(cars named Wichita, Topeka, Ft. Worth and Houston)
-68-seat chair car:
cieling: light gray,
walls: greyed orchid,
window sills: royal purple,
upholstry: blue,
carpet - burgundy,
red drapes over windows

-76-seat chair car:
walls: pink shade
upholstry: garnet shade of red
carpet: rust
cieling: light sienna

CANADIAN PACIFIC:(steel lightweight cars)
maroon seats, light blue floor, and D&H gray walls

And Antonio, I'm sure you're dying to know the interior colors for the ACL cars...I'll see how far I get into reading these books befoer I get tired and give em in another post.

And please, if anyone has bought any of walthers NEW pullman cars, they're supposed to have prototype colored molding and I'd like to know the colors of the interiors. Each railroad had different colors and I don't know what the car in the advertisement in Model Railroader is from.

And if anyone knows the interior seating and floor colors for a combine or diner-lounge from either Pullman or Nickel Plate Road, please do share.

[Anonymous]

Its no problem sharing what I know. Finding interior colors is a VERY hard thing to do and if I can share what I have, I will. I wish someone would just make a section on their website with interior colors for everything so research would be much easier.

Plus, I don't want to leech off information especially when I know I have something that can be of use. I should be home by Thursday and will have the Powhattan Arrow colors around then.

I model O-gauge and have already painted NYC, SOU, and N&W passenger car interiors. I want to make sure what I've done is right, but my current projects are another set of NYC cars and two Nickle Plate Heavyweights that I want to make into Pullman's, thus I need some time of color scheme for these.

Passenger figures in O-gauge are possibly to buy like 120unpainted for $22 and I do a decent paint job. One pack can go a long way...maybe not entire FULL train, but pretty far. Not to mention that companies are starting to put prototype colored interiors in their cars WITH people...saves some trouble.

Here are the Pullman Sleeper colors given by someone else:(possibly prototype)
Since the scale distance is so grand between viewer and object I use pale cream for walls, and pale green or tan for seats. If you model PULLMAN sleepers, you can try pale green walls with pale red-tan seats. Most cars had a real scheme. Made up of contrasting colors. Red and green are color opposites, blue and orange, and violet and yellow.

http://gardenrailways.com/community/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=21650

That was from another post that originally brought me to this forum. Very Informative since my father wants to get SCL coaches, but I have no information on SCL interiors.

[csmith9474]

What do you use to tint the windows?? I have been scratching my head about this one for awhile.

[AntonioFP45]

Jecorbett,

You make a valid point.

For me the problem is that when I look at the beautiful Walthers Cars, those plain "mono-colored" interior seats, tables, and partitions drive me nuts! That's distracting. I've found that with painted interiors, passenger cars look so much more realistic, even if empty.

But for those that don't want to paint their interiors, tinting the windows and adding window shades may work quite well.

High Greens

[jecorbett]

The trouble with detailing the interiors is that it will draw the eye the which almost requires the addition of passengers which can add a lot of expense, even if you start with unpainted figures. Otherwise it will be obvious that your passenger trains are running empty. Sometimes, you can add too much detail. My rule of thumb is to detail those elements that I want to draw attention too. I don't want to draw attention to my empty passenger cars.

[sebamat]

Any idea of the interior colours of Heawyweight Pullman sleeper cars?

Specially walls enf floor.

And did someone try to build from scrap (cardboard/stirene sheets) the interior of MDC 50' Overland sleeping/businnes cars? Any suggestion?

Thank you

sebastiano

[Anonymous]

Since this topic keeps getting brought back to life...

Here's some questions for you:
Colors of objects if possible:
Walls, Seats, Floor, Vestibule

New York Central Heavyweight interior colors?
For the long distance heavyweights, I was told dark gray carpet with light gray seats and a red stripe down the center of the carpet. Walls and vestibules were a beige color. What about the commuter cars? I remember someone telling me the floors were lineoleum(what color is that?) and red seats...but unsure of shade.

Southern Two Tone Green Crescent?
I was told a dark green floor with a pullmanish/light green seats

Pullman (or Nickel Plate Road) Heavyweight Combine and Diner Lounge:

I have the interior colors for N&W's Powhattan Arrow at my house. I am currently in my dorm, but when I return I will give you the specs that I have for each type of car that I got from the Purple Norfolk and Western Handbook.

A website I just came across tonight had color interior pictures of cars from: Canadian National, CB&Q, Milwaukee Road, and Southern Pacific.

http://www.jerryapp.com/arcv_idx.html

I also have some random interior colors I got from a few books that I was trying to research interio colors from at the NCSU Library:
-Southern Railway:
Coach...outside seat red, inside seat gray, walls a medium jade green

-Empire State:
colors used...but on what? mullberry, evergreen, brown, and marine blue

-20th Century Limited:
clublounge car: walls - gray leather, couches blue leather and the shades match the exterior, them being light shades

-Southern Pacific Daylight:
SP had special names for their colors: Russian Tan, Broken White, Nantes Blue, Cocoa Beige, Jonquil Yellow; each car had six basic colors, darkest on floors, medium at walls, and lighting on cieling

-B&O's Royal Blue:
light color walls, chromium tublur furntiure and linoleum
chairs in lounge: red, brown, and green frieze
coach and parlor: rust and red frieze with neutal ivory seats

-Santa Fe's Super Chief:
observation lounge: turqoise cieling, red chairs w/ blue and white patterns
diner: chairs - red -orange leather; carpet was same color but with black accents
also each car had its own little theme

-M-1000 City of Saline:
chairs - golden brown

-Pullman (not sure of what car tho...possibly Mainline Coach):
beige/yellow walls, maroon floor in vestibules and bathroom, myrtle green seats, white sinks and toilets

-L&N's The Georgian:
upholstery shades of browns and reds, maroon rugs, ivory walls and cielings
diner/parlors #2800-2801:red booths, black counters, blue/grey floor

-Clinchfield:
obs/lounge: grey floor, walls are beige, blue and maroon seats, white table tops w/ silver sides, white walls

Those are just some tidbits I was able to scan from about 10-20 different books. No one really seemed to keep tabs on or care about the interior colors.

Thanks for the tips and ideas.

[AntonioFP45]

Looking forward to it, William!

[Anonymous]

Thanks a million Antonio. As soon as the postman brings the interiors I ordered I'll get painting. If I do a good job I'll take some photos and post them here.
Thanks again
William

[AntonioFP45]

Hi Guys!

Had to dig through my photos.

California Zephyr -
A Zephyr dome-observation car was brought to Tampa back in 1981 and was opened to the public. Sorry, but I must make a "Correction" on my earlier post regarding the California Zephyr car that I shot. The seats have a yellow cloth placed on top of the back sections , (I assume to protect the seat backs from hair sweat.) The seats themselves are actually a light green.

I looked at my model paint charts.
No exact match in Floquil, but Badger ModelFlex #16-47 Light Green is almost right on the mark.
Now, the head/back cloth section cover (which would require a very tiny paint brush) would be Erie Lackawanna Yellow. (available in Floquil, and Model Flex).

The interior walls are the typical light beige found in many streamline era cars. Floquil and Model Flex have the colors. A mix of 3 parts Antique White and one part Reefer Yellow would be close.

The skeletal framework walls in the glass dome,however, are white! That threw me for a loop. As always, use flat not gloss.

The floor is carpeted. Dark Gray with swirl patterns of green, black, and light gray. Looks like typical office carpet. Floors usually can't be seen, so I don't bother painting mine. For a dome section, however, it might not be a bad idea.

Chessie excursion cars.
I took an interior photo of car #5 which is a smooth sided heavyweight coach that I rode in when the #614 steamer came into town.

The seats are a dark Red/Brown. In Floquil the closest color appears to be #60163 Santa Fe Mineral Brown. In ModelFlex it would be #16-14.

The interior walls and ceiling: Light beige colors, almost identical to the Zephyr car though. I would go with the same or similar color mix.

Again guys, these are only my opinions based on photos taken with a 35mm, no flash during daylight hours. Continue to do your research as well and if your results are different, by all means post them here. Sometimes thumbing through old issues of TRAINS or other magazines will yield results.

Hope this helps!