03-08-2012, 01:18 PM
As Dave mentions, pre-1900 cars came in various colours, and passenger cars could have been quite ornately decorated. The Great Western, based in my hometown of Hamilton Ontario, had passenger cars of natural (uncoloured) wood, highly varnished, then adorned with scrollwork, pinstriping, and ornate lettering. I suspect that economics put an end to much of that. Likewise, most freight equipment became some form of boxcar red. Based on iron oxide, the paint was both cheap and durable. The colour varied from brown to different shades of orange and red.
Black for open cars may have been because many, especially hoppers and gondolas, were used for carrying coal and would be less likely to show the dust associated with its handling.
Also, black was often used on metal hardware on freight cars - this eventually ended on most cars painted with iron oxide-based paints, but continued for many years on cars like reefers. This included grab irons, ladders, re-enforcing plates, door hardware, and exposed metal sidesills.
Car ends and roofs were often painted black, too, especially when metal roofs and ends were used on wooden cars. This faded out for some time, but later came back in vogue when black roofing cement came into use - early metal roofs, while an improvement over the wooden ones, grew more and more prone to leakage as the cars aged. The ends, always vulnerable to shifting lading, often leaked as well.
The only older black house cars which come to mind are some stock cars on....perhaps on the D&RGW? I'm not sure of their applicable era, either - it may have been later than your modelling period. Later, N&W had black boxcars.
Pretty-well all of my home road cars, both open and closed, are boxcar red. I generally use a mixture of commercially-available colours, so a batch of similar cars painted at the same time will be the same colour. This may be different from other home road cars and even different from similar cars done at a different time. In few instances do I use a colour as it comes, straight from the bottle. Weathering will add some subtle difference to each car, and I may use up to 5 or 10 different shades or combinations when weathering.
When painting cars for other roads, I try to vary the colours, especially if the cars are from various roads but being painted all at the same time. For instance, the first car may be done with Floquil's Boxcar Red, the next the same but with some orange added, the next with some black, etc., etc. A train of boxcar red cars, unless they're brand new and from the same road, is not a homogeneous string of colour when passing.
Wayne
Black for open cars may have been because many, especially hoppers and gondolas, were used for carrying coal and would be less likely to show the dust associated with its handling.
Also, black was often used on metal hardware on freight cars - this eventually ended on most cars painted with iron oxide-based paints, but continued for many years on cars like reefers. This included grab irons, ladders, re-enforcing plates, door hardware, and exposed metal sidesills.
Car ends and roofs were often painted black, too, especially when metal roofs and ends were used on wooden cars. This faded out for some time, but later came back in vogue when black roofing cement came into use - early metal roofs, while an improvement over the wooden ones, grew more and more prone to leakage as the cars aged. The ends, always vulnerable to shifting lading, often leaked as well.
The only older black house cars which come to mind are some stock cars on....perhaps on the D&RGW? I'm not sure of their applicable era, either - it may have been later than your modelling period. Later, N&W had black boxcars.
Pretty-well all of my home road cars, both open and closed, are boxcar red. I generally use a mixture of commercially-available colours, so a batch of similar cars painted at the same time will be the same colour. This may be different from other home road cars and even different from similar cars done at a different time. In few instances do I use a colour as it comes, straight from the bottle. Weathering will add some subtle difference to each car, and I may use up to 5 or 10 different shades or combinations when weathering.
When painting cars for other roads, I try to vary the colours, especially if the cars are from various roads but being painted all at the same time. For instance, the first car may be done with Floquil's Boxcar Red, the next the same but with some orange added, the next with some black, etc., etc. A train of boxcar red cars, unless they're brand new and from the same road, is not a homogeneous string of colour when passing.
Wayne