Milwaukee Road Yard/Interlocking Towers question

RRDOC posted:

I just started this Gloorcraft interlocking tower kit for my Milwaukee Road layout.  Without the bay window, it is a reasonable facsimile to Milwaukee towers.  My question is what colors to paint it.  I model the late 50s.  Most of the color pictures on the web or in my Milwaukee Road books show White, Grey, 2-tone Grey, or White and Grey.  The black and white photos are either white or some unknown 2-tone scheme.

 

 

 

I would rather do a more colorful scheme than Grey or White.

So, here is my question:   Were any wooden yard or interlocking towers ever painted in the Maroon/Orange scheme?  Is the St. James MN White/red tower a prototype paint scheme?

Bob

The two pictures I kept from your original post are of the same tower. St Croix is long gone now, but I could technically include it on my layout because it controlled the junction with the CB&Q and is an important part of what I'm modeling. As for the paint, obviously there were a wide range of schemes used, but I tend to lean toward the two tone grey in the color picture.

Maroon and orange on a tower? Doubtful. That seemed to only be used on some depots. I seem to recall hearing somewhere that the two tone grey came about when the Milwaukee Road got a good deal on surplus government paint. Remember they were always financially challenged.

Here are a couple more pictures of St Croix that I found. As you can see, not only did the paint change over time, but so did the track. The Milwaukee is on the right, Q on the left.