C628's in Maroon

What is the date of that shot? I was thinking it might have been one of the units that lasted in freight service (or the one they kept for the business trains) through 1966 or so. The baggage cars in that shot would make it appear they're on a passenger run and date it to 1961 or earlier, prior to PRR full control. The red does look more brown than normal, but it's hard to say just what they might have used to paint it in that late 1950's period.


PAs differ some in nose striping; some have the bottom black stripe all the way around the nose, some it ends where it meets the curve of the upper stripes and has a gap in the middle.

The stripeless PA is from late 1958. Thats the Maple Leaf, behind those Alcos, and indeed, Passenger service still had three years left, on life support. The first five PA's had the stripe across the bottom, to match freight units. The Valley painted over them shortly after arrival, and the rest were delivered, sans connecting stripe, across the nose. Along the way, roofs were sometimes painted black, to hide soot/oil, etc. Regards <LV>

GOLDEN-ARM wrote: (how hard is it to duplicate Cornell red? It's available from Dupont as well as Sherman Williams, as automotive/railroad paint. If you took every type of model paint, claiming to be Cornell Red, you would see none of them are the same, and most of them are wrong, for new paint, .....

I have painted with the actual Dupont Cornell Red. I also have an official LV Cornell Red paint chip. I also worked with Scalecoat to see that their Cornell Red matched the LV chip. It is a spectral match when applied over a flat black primer.

Of course, this is Cornell Red from the PA, FA era and on a newly painted loco. Sun, soot, and other environmental factors greatly modify red paints. So I must agree with the guy who said, "Paint it almost any shade of red and you'll match some LV loco at some time in it's career."

Interestingly, the LV model paint I was happiest with was Plasti-Cote Candy Apple Red (which came in their Body Shop Paint line in a 14 or so ounce spray) - over black base.

I haven't seen that paint anywhere in a long time, though. Looks good on the SD40-2s I painted up. At least thats what I think I used on them, I did some in Testors dark red, too. Some dullcoat over it and it starts to turn that maroon color units picked up in time as they weathered.

It wasn't a true candy apple, which is a translucent paint, just a bright medium shade of red. (ever see the Life Like HO GP38 from the 70s?, those were painted with a real candy apple red over a silver or gold base).