Prototypical Pennsylvania Railroad color of freight cars?

PRR NEVER painted freight equipment of any kind "tuscan red".    Also they never painted tender decks or cab roofs Tuscan red.      Only Lionel and MTH and some others have done that.

PRR had a designated freight car color.    It was basically a boxcar red but redder than the brown some roads used.    The other point is that the paint became darker through the years, mostly I was told as better artificial pigments came available.    So early in the 20 century, freight car color was light and more orangish.    Then as you get into the late 40s and 50s it becomes darker and more brown, but not tuscan which a maroon color.    I don't have the documentation or article on this at hand.     Now as to the Lionel Orange on the recent freight cars - I hate it - but I can't say it is wrong.    One of my buddies thinks it is not that bad for early PRR Freight car color.   I think it too orange.      Can anyone say for sure - looking at photos does not help - one there was not color early on, and too color photos and slide fade and older paints weathered badly.

As for loco cab roofs and decks, there is some stuff on that.     They were actually painted different colors.    The tender deck I think was Freight car color and the cab roof was more brown (or vice-versa).    There is an article in the PRRT&HS journal describing this and all the paint details on stearmers.    I will post it if I find it.   

I am attaching a detailed writeup from the Journal on cabins (cabooses), and a summary.   

PRRJIM,

Thank you.  That helps a lot.

JR Junction Train & Hobby posted:

PRRJIM,

Thank you.  That helps a lot.

I agree...

Mark in Oregon (but a Pennsy fan)

Would the reddish brown color of this Lionel Postwar PRR boxcar be an approximately prototypical color?

I'm only asking about the reddish brown color, not the black door.

Reasin I ask is I really like that reddish brown color. Arnold

As I mentioned above, who knows for sure.    It looks OK for mid 20th century to me.     The logo is all wrong however.    it should be all white with the part around the lettering clear/see-thru for pre-about 1955.    they started teh shadow keystone scheme around that time.    I think for a shadow keystone scheme it should get a little more brown.

As mentioned, paint fades and is affected by the weather and where it serves.     So each car may not look like every other one once they are in service in my opinion.   

And keep in mind older paint schemes work in more modern settings - not been shopped  yet,  but newer paint schemes do not work well in older eras.    You don't want shadow keystones on a layout representing anything prior to about 1955.     so most steam operations are going to be circle keystone schemes.   the Circle Keystone scheme came in around 1930 and was used for about 25 years.

Lionel's first run of the GLa hoppers was pretty close. These newer runs are very orange. It might be slightly better than the first run of deep chocolate brown X31s but not really.

Don't think it's prototypical, but certainly not the first time Lionel has featured PRR boxcars in a fetching shade of orange...

https://www.tandem-associates....ns_x6004_box_car.htm

Mitch 

Don Ball's Pennsylvania Railroad in Color has a photo of freshly shopped PRR freight cars coming from Altoona's Samuel Rea car shop.  They're definitely redder than boxcar brown, but not the shade seen in the catalog shot above.  I'd share the picture... but Alan says I'd get in trouble... so if you're really interested, get Ian S. Fischer's PRR Color Guide to Freight and Passenger Equipment.

Jon

@prrjim posted:

PRR NEVER painted freight equipment of any kind "tuscan red".    Also they never painted tender decks or cab roofs Tuscan red.      Only Lionel and MTH and some others have done that.

PRR had a designated freight car color.    It was basically a boxcar red but redder than the brown some roads used.    The other point is that the paint became darker through the years, mostly I was told as better artificial pigments came available.    So early in the 20 century, freight car color was light and more orangish.    Then as you get into the late 40s and 50s it becomes darker and more brown, but not tuscan which a maroon color.    I don't have the documentation or article on this at hand.     Now as to the Lionel Orange on the recent freight cars - I hate it - but I can't say it is wrong.    One of my buddies thinks it is not that bad for early PRR Freight car color.   I think it too orange.      Can anyone say for sure - looking at photos does not help - one there was not color early on, and too color photos and slide fade and older paints weathered badly.

As for loco cab roofs and decks, there is some stuff on that.     They were actually painted different colors.    The tender deck I think was Freight car color and the cab roof was more brown (or vice-versa).    There is an article in the PRRT&HS journal describing this and all the paint details on stearmers.    I will post it if I find it.  

Did you ever locate the steam locomotive cab roof paint color information? Thanks!

If I were to put my money on a color it would be this shade.  John

Patiently waiting to see how those VL Reefers turned out, neon?...or not?

Sorry, John, but express / mail storage cars were used most often in passenger service, so what you are looking at in your picture is probably Tuscan Red, not Freight Car color, IMO.  I have also attached some info about PRR paints that I gathered from the internet.  That document provides a little more detail on how the "shades" of some particular colors varied over the years.

Chuck