You know how sometimes, instead of an actual building the railroad will use like an old caboose for a yard office or an old box car for small storage? Well, i am working on just that today, and I couldn't figure out what color to use. Well, what color was normally used for this situation?
On the way to Parsons,KS I went through Joplin,MO and I saw two old boxcars used for just that. They were plain gray with OFFICE written on one in white and on the other it was marked TOOLS. These were older cars PS-1 maybe they were near the old Joplin Union Station on the other side of the tracks. I stopped to get pics of the station and noticed them there. Hope this helps. Near Dallas,TX there is some gray ones with a big MKT logo on them. Ship it on the Frisco!!! Murphy Jenkins
Just mix some white and a dab of black together to make your own gray. Subtle differences in tint will add to the weathering effect.
It seems to me many of these cars actually have a silver cast to them, so use of aluminum paint may not be too far off the mark, particularly if weathered.
Ethan: There was a boxcar in Severy, KS that was on stilts (posts of some nature) that was used for MOW equipment storage and it was painted silver. The trick is to spray paint lightly enough so it has a faded look and the old lettering tends to show through. Also there was a 40' PS1 boxcar that sat on a siding in Enid, OK that remained it's original color scheme with the "Ship IT on the Frisco" lettering intact. Now if you were modeling the UP you would need to paint everything a "pukey" green color. Sorry everyone, I just couldn't resist.
Bob, I think I may have a jar of Scalecoat Pukey Green. I would have to look around the workbench. More seriously, this is a shade that I've used for 1940s-era building interiors, when I don't have any other information on the interior colors. It seems to be "good enough" for the era.
