Paint Match for ATSF Grey Sleepers?

[Mr. Trainiac]

The Santa Fe had a few classes of sleepers from Pullman that did not have stainless steel fluting. They were painted in a few different schemes over their lives, but I am interested in the uniform grey scheme. Walthers has modeled these cars in the past. My problem is that I need to make some modifications to the car, so I think it would be easier to simply repaint the model rather than try to match the factory Walthers paint. Does anybody know the name of this color, or a type of paint that is close? Tru-Color 333 ATSF Tarpon Grey looks close, but that's technically the color of ATSF steam locomotive smokeboxes.

Wondering if anybody has done a model like this, or knows someone who has.

www.walthers.com/san-francisco-chief-85-p-s-valley-6-6-4-sleeper-deluxe-ready-to-run-santa-fe-painted

[edwardsutorik]

My Santa Fe painting book says:

"In 1953 the Santa Fe began repainting some of its modernized air-conditioned chair cars dark gray except for roofs and lettering. Many other cars were subsequently repainted....."

roofs were usually black, but sometimes aluminum--some trucks were painted aluminum--lettering was gray-white

The book calls it "Medium Gray", and doesn't reveal much else.

My recommendation is to try to match the Walthers, unless you fell it's wrong. Another option might be to match something from Coach Yard, as it's my guess they've done some cars in that paint.

Barring that, I would collect a whole buncha color photos, and make my best guess.

There doesn't seem to be a Santa Fe groups.io. You might bring the subject up in the Passenger Car List, I'm sure someone over there takes their Santa Fe stuff seriously.



Ed

[Mr. Trainiac]

I suspect the 'Medium Grey' was one of the two greys from the Two-Tone Grey scheme. I found a claim online that SP Lark, NYC Two-Tone Grey, Pullman TTG, and ATSF TTG all used the same paint chips.

The ATSF cars bounced around between a few different two-tone schemes, sometimes with simplified pinstripes or different roof colors like you said, and then ended their lives in the basic grey scheme. They probably used paint they had on hand rather than invent a new color for the final 'economy' scheme. That narrows it down to two colors.

When you compare the Walthers model with a similar TTG Heavyweight, it looks like the ATSF grey is close to the lighter grey in TTG. I think it's a good place to start. I may get both colors and experiment; maybe a mix of the two to get something in between.

[edwardsutorik]

A picture of a Coach Yard car:




and the Walthers version:





Ed

[Baikal]

Jan 20, 2024 23:00:25 GMT -8 Mr. Trainiac said:

I suspect the 'Medium Grey' was one of the two greys from the Two-Tone Grey scheme. I found a claim online that SP Lark, NYC Two-Tone Grey, Pullman TTG, and ATSF TTG all used the same paint chips.

The ATSF cars bounced around between a few different two-tone schemes, sometimes with simplified pinstripes or different roof colors like you said, and then ended their lives in the basic grey scheme. They probably used paint they had on hand rather than invent a new color for the final 'economy' scheme. That narrows it down to two colors.

When you compare the Walthers model with a similar TTG Heavyweight, it looks like the ATSF grey is close to the lighter grey in TTG. I think it's a good place to start. I may get both colors and experiment; maybe a mix of the two to get something in between.

I'm pretty sure that the SP, NYC, and Pullman two-tone grays were all the same.  Santa Fe probably.

If so that would mean the ATSF passenger car grey would be SP Lark Light Grey.  SP locos are Lark Dark Gray.

[edwardsutorik]

It appears that the Santa Fe paint scheme was chosen because it was cheaper than two tone. The logical choice would be to leave the dark colored stripe off, and leave the "base" color. Ordering a whole new grey doesn't make much sense to me.

IF you already have some Santa Fe two tone, that would then provide a paint sample for your task.


Ed