While I am old enough to remember heavyweight passenger cars, my memory is not THAT good. I just received my shipment of Micro-trains scissor gates for the heavyweight cars. They are laser cut and are going to need some paint before installation. So...what color? I would guess Pullman Green, Black or possibly silver. Anybody out there remember??? Steve E.
I would say Pullman Green and maybe black. But I doubt they would have been silver. As far as rust.....maybe if it was a dilapitated tourist RR that couldn't afford paint.
Pretty sure it depends on the road. The L&N heavyweights about 20 minutes from me have them painted blue. Not sure if that's correct to the era or something the museum did during restoration.
My memory of New York Central car gates were dark like Floquil's Grimy Black or Weathered Black, but definitely not pure black....and dirty with specks of rust near the hinges and mountings, especially on the coaches in daily service which didn't get cleaned all that well between runs.