World's oldest jar of model railroad paint

I wonder how old that is? I have some Floquil that dates back to the late 60's-early 70's, I think!

Jeff

And if it's usable, it's probably as good if not better than today's paint.

When can we start the conversation (argument) about what railroad color it represents?  Will Lionel bid on it to finally get a railroad color right?

Chuck

That’s kind of cool.

Hey, look, you can thin it with turpentine, not some Rolls-Royce priced thinner out of stock.

@PRR1950 posted:

When can we start the conversation (argument) about what railroad color it represents?  Will Lionel bid on it to finally get a railroad color right?

Chuck

Well, it clearly states "Caboose Red" on the label.

That cap looks to be under some pressure... kind of like a homebrew with just a wee bit too much carbonation -- don't ask me how I know this

Leave it to you Bill.  Probably left over from an old Varney kit project!

ET

Contents are still completely liquid.  I suspect this is in the 75 year old range.  I've had it for about forty years and who knows who had it before that.  Never needed to use it in the days of readily available Floquil and Scalecoat, but I have to admit that turpentine thinner is a pretty attractive feature.  Just a neat artifact from the early days of this wonderful hobby.

Neat artifact but given turpentine is the thinner I suspect drying time is very long. Likely OK for wood models though.

If anyone is interested I was at Bowser/English’s in Montoursvile, PA a few weeks ago and they had dozens of bottles of original Scalecoat. Most so old the labels were coming off. Paint appeared liquid though.

Pete

A while back I got these off eBay because it's so rare to find something like this. My guess is these may be prewar - I wonder if they're older than your bottle? These haven't fared as well, the two jars have separated out and the bottle is dried up.