It wasnt only the rolling stock that was painted Jade green, it was also the interiors of all the offices and furniture. Underneath all the esthetically pleasing paint in all the rooms of the Sayre passenger station as well as still exposed at the NS crew change building next door is bright green. Even the old furniture that floats around is that color. Someone told me that the LV started using that color partly for visibility purposes (rolling stock), but also as a theft deterant. People who worked for the LV were taking tons of paint for personal use. There are a lot of houses in Sayre that I know of that still have some original "Cornell" red rooms or exteriors. There are even a few with the jade green.
I dont know if thats the truth, some employees formulate their own opinions about executive decisions and combine that with age and you dont always get the whole picture.
The only argument I would have against the surplus connection would be that there seem to be several different shades of this green. My office on the second floor of the train station( former trainmasters office) was painted a very light, almost mint green and the first floor women and childrens waiting room, which was later a storage and office room for the M/W dept. Was painted with a darker, almost highway roadsign green. The Roadforeman's office which is on the second floor of the station is painted with a strange "dried pepto bismal" color pink, which is also visible in trim at the NS building next door. It almost seems that they were going for the "Thats a horrible color, who would want that" attitude to protect their assets.
Greg
