MODELING DETAILS-PULLMAN CARS
PULLMAN PAINT SCHEMES
According to Andy Sperandeo in "Paint Shop" in the May '89 MR, Pullman
heavyweight sleepers were generally "Pullman Green" with gold lettering and
black roof, trucks, and underframe throughout most of their life (as shown
in a Gerrit Bruins photo c. mid to late 1950's). Cars assigned to the Pennsy
were matched to that road's tuscan red. Sperandeo in turn credited all this
information to Pennsylvania RR Passenger Car Painting And Lettering by
Charles Blardone, Jr. and Peter Tilp, which covered a great deal of paint
scheme information on Pullman and other roads beside the PRR. Apparently the
book even contained paint chips reproductions, and of the three major paint
manufacturers - Accupaint, Floquil, and Scalecoat - the best match for the
green was Scalecoat's No. 17 Pullman Green.
I scanned in the color patch printed in Arthur Dubin's Pullman Paint And
Lettering Notebook, and the color was indicated to be 53% cyan, 47% magenta,
63% yellow, and 51% "k" (?). (This assumes an accurate printing in Dubin's
book, and even more unlikely, our scanner is accurate.) I have think Pullman
green is sort of a misnomer, more a chocolate brown with a touch of green
like vermouth in a good martini. (On the right is the same shade, only
lighter.)
In 1938, when the New York Central adopted a two-tone gray scheme for its
lightweight cars, Pullman did the same for its lightweight general-service
pool cars, with a light gray body and a dark gray window band. In '46,
Pullman extended the scheme to their heavyweight cars in the general pool.
Late in '46, the NYC switched the l ight and dark gray sections, and Pullman
followed suit in '47. In '53, the colors were made slightly darker, and the
lettering changed from Roman to Gothic. (However, in the '50's, most
Pullmans were still dark green.)
Floquil's SP Lark Light and Dark Grays (110131 and 110132) and Scalecoat's
No. 32 UP Harbor Mist Gray and No. 33 UP Dark Gray were the best match to
the 1946 colors. Accupaint's No. 45 and 46 NYC Light and Dark Grays,
Floquil's NYC Light and Dark Grays (I believe discontinued), and Scalecoat's
No. 66 and 65 NYC Light and Dark Grays were all matched to the 1953 colors.
The window band went from just above the rivets along the bottom of the
letter board to just below the belt rail under the windows. The colors were
separated by two inch silver-gray stripes.
In general, "Pullman" was centered on the top, with the car name, not a car
number, on the bottom. Cars in assigned service had the road's initials in
smaller letters with periods at each end of the top band, I believe. On Dec.
31, '48, Pullman sold most (but not all) of their cars to the roads over
which they operated (a court-ordered divestiture), and all but the Milwaukee
leased the cars back to Pullman for operation and maintenance, as much a
paper transaction as anything.
Bill Darnaby, in the same "Paint Shop" painted a model in the '53 scheme,
using a Walthers set, which has been discontinued. However, he said that
Champ had just introduced Pullman decals for this scheme as set no. BRH-82,
and Champ stripes, S-86, correctly matched the same silver-gray color as the
lettering, and were the right width.
John Horvath (third quarter '84 Central Headlight) said that Pullman owned
two-tone gray heavyweights used 7 inch letters for "Pullman" in the center,
and no road name. The NYC heavyweights in the same scheme had "Pullman" in
five inch letters centered, but with "New York Central" at each end (not
reporting marks).
Railway Post Office
While there were no cars owned by the post office, any railroad that had
RPO's had to follow these standards, adopted in January 19, 1925.
On full 60 foot sections, "United States Mail/Railway Post Office" was to
centered between the doors (and below the belt rail). On 30 foot sections,
the same lettering was to confined to the RPO section itself. On 15 foot
sections, the lettering was abbreviated and placed on three lines "U. S.
Mail/Railway/Post Office", and also confined to the RPO section, too.
Canadian cars that ran in the U.S., such as on the Central Vermont, would
also have this lettering. There was no similar Canadian post office
lettering that I've ever seen.
© S.A. McCall