Anyone know what color steam era engine houses were painted

mikeowen17 posted:

about to start a new project on my layout and was wondering if there was a typical color steam era engine houses were painted?

Depended on whether they were wood, brick, or concrete.

Or did it vary by railroad? 

Yes.

I don't remember any freshly painted ones. The ones in the Toledo area were all neglected and dirty by the late 40s and 50s.

Meant to mention -  I am referring specifically to wooden engine houses

My guess is brick with an ample coating of soot.

Railroads really liked the red oxide pigment paints.  It was cheep, durable, and help hide dirt and rust.  This is what is frequently called boxcar red.  

It varied by railroad as most of them had standardized paint schemes for the buildings,assuming you are talking about wooden ones. Your best bet find a picture of the railroad that interest you most, or if you have many different railroads on your layout you may want to pick a color scheme that you like.

Many were brick or even stone if older.   

If framed (wood siding) it would be the RR standard color on the larger roads that had standard colors.   For example on the pennsy, wood frame buildings were painted "depot buff" with brown trim.   The closest color to Depot buff seems to be the old Floquil "aged concrete".  

And of course in the steam era, they would be covered with a lot of soot from the locos.    

Faded grey would another option.

Generally, each railroad had it's own paint scheme for wood buildings, and their stations, signal towers, and other buildings would be painted the same way. Of course sometimes railroads changed their paint scheme, so you might find an older building wearing an older paint scheme.

Pale green, sometimes called "industrial green", was commonly used by railroads for the interior of...well, pretty much anything that had an interior: stations, cabooses, passenger cars, engine cabs, roundhouses, etc. Tamiya "cockpit green" is a good example, they also make a "gray-green" that would work.

The roundhouses (and most of the ancillary buildings) on the Grand Trunk Western were painted a red oxide. Stations and interlockers were quite another story.

Neil

Depends on the RR & era.  Frequently what ever color resulted from pouring all the left over paint into a larger container.  Or if the paint job was running low on the intended  color they would just add a close color that was laying around.

Don't over think it.