REA Color

A little help please. What color on the market matches Railway Express Agency equipment?
Thank
Bigsix:tb-rolleyes:

 

There were at least two shades of green. I believe the early color was Hunter green. They switched to a lighter, brighter shade of green in the sixties.

Frank

 

In the mid 70`s they were Gray.

 

I used Scalecoat II "Hunter Green" for my two cars that were repainted to the dark green color (both from orange), and quite satisfied with the results.

There definitely was a lighter color though.

 

The REA cars I remember as a kid in New England during the 40s and early 50s were real grundgy due to snow, slush, mud, and other stuff that never got washed off. Also, from looking at the color photos in my B&M and NYC books from that period, you'd be hard pressed to identify what the original color was. Maybe it was green, but I wouldn't place money on that.....:tb-tongue:

 

Here's the pair I did with Scalecoat II Hunter Green and Micro-Scale decals (mostly because the good REA ones were collectors items /sold out)



I did a lot of digging on these as I used them as the basis for the powered express reefer concept. Here's on of the best color shots I found:

Railfan.net ABPR Image REa-ExpressCar-4037-atChicago-Oct67.jpg

And from the looks of things, this is NOT a museum shot, the car looks nearly sticky:

http://www.geocities.com/oldlahistory/rex5304.jpg

 

Thanks Guys, Hunter green looks about the way I remember them. That was many moons ago though. Great looking cars there Randgust.
Thanks again
Bigsix

 

Could this be it?
http://rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=813738
http://rrpicturearchives.net/rspicture.aspx?id=96351

 

This lighter shade of green looks like Penn Central Green...if there was such a color?

Hunter Green for the darker color looks correct to me.

 

Not authoritative or complete by any means but the Microscale REA decal set has information for 1953 (early), 1953 or later, and 1961 express reefers all Hunter green. The 1929 scheme is Pullman green and a 1947 experimental scheme (6100 series cars only) is silver with green stripes. Seems as though the latter scheme was offered by one of the manufacturers.


Ben