PRCo PCC Colors

[Jim Holland]

Greetings!

	All the color photos I have of PRCo PCC equipment when relatively new
show the red to have a definite orange bias.  The color is red but it is
a soft red, not deep and hard.  Also, if you have the video
*PCC-Triolgy* there are color photos of 1200s from 1940 when  NEW! 
These were shot quite professionally on 16mm film on tripod and are
excellent in color rendition.
	I have a color photo made from a slide that shows an 3800 in the yard
with a 17 sitting beside it - the 17 is definitely a brighter and softer
red and has the orange bias.
	I think that 1711 at the museum is too deep and dark a red.  Also, the
front window area should be painted black - that is the way the cars
arrived from St.-Louis car - helps to give the car proportions and makes
it look somewhat like a wide-bodied PCC instead of the narrow one.
	Maybe in the latter 1950s the color got deeper as cars were repainted. 
I remember wondering why the red was so dark.
	I don't know who sets the standards for naming paint colors but these
fancy-dancy names tell little about the actual color!:>)  And don't know
that the names translate well in color quality from one company to
another!
	Check the color on Fred's model - The *St.-Petersburg Trams* models are
spookily accurate and the red seems to be very close to the original
color.

Dietrich, Robert J. wrote:

> Dennis' reference to painting PRCo paint comes from a question I was asking
> all over the meet.  What model paint should be used to match PRCo PCC
> colors?  This begs the obvious question what color was the prototype?  Fred
> Schneider told me it is the paint supplier said it is the same as the LVT
> Mountain Ash Scarlet.   Ed Skuchas told me it is redder than that.  The
> photo on the PTM Poster at this weekend's meet showed the restored PTM 1700
> car repainted in a very red hue.  But the cover of the 2000 PTM calendar
> shows 1697 much more subdued and orange, a closer match to the LVT photos
> I've seen.

> The evidence is all tainted; was the restored car painted with the correct
> paint?  What effect did time have on the old color photos (we know what
> effect time had on the cars)?  And what color was Mountain Ash Scarlet?

> Would anyone like to render an opinion as to the color I should use to paint
> my weathered PRCo PCCs?

> Thanks.
> Bob
>  -----Original Message-----
> From:   DF Cramer [mailto:dfc1 at alltel.net]
> Sent:   Monday, September 11, 2000 6:17 AM
> To:     trolley LIST
> Subject:        Fall Trolley Extravaganza

>     A note to Bob Dietrich:  I used Badger Model Flex Caboose Red (16-08)
> and Antique White ((16-06) on my HO 1700 Series PCC's.  It seems pretty
> close to 1711 at PTM, but as I said, I suffer from color blindness.  I also
> followed up in your written request about membership.

James B. Holland

        Pittsburgh  Railways  Company  (PRCo),   1930  --  1950
    To e-mail privately, please click here: mailto:pghpcc at pacbell.net
N.M.R.A.  Life member #2190; http://www.mcs.net:80/~weyand/nmra/