On Jan 5, 2008, at 8:18 PM, Brian J Carlson wrote:

I have a 40' boxcar to paint in MP's Route of the Eagles scheme. Ed
Hawkins
told me the MP color turned more red in the 1950's.Does anyone have a
acrylic based mix for a mid 1950's MP color. I assume Ed has this
information, but I think he is at Cocoa Beach, along with most of
this list.

Brian,
As far as I know, actual paint specs and/or paint samples for MoPac's
home-built box cars during the 1950s have never been located except for
a diagram that provides paint specs for the Eagle Merchandise cars.
There are precious few color photos of new 1950s MoPac box cars that
I've ever seen. Therefore, painting information is based mostly on B&W
photos, recognizing the inherent potential errors that can occur by
deducing information from them.

I don't have a formula for an acrylic model paint. For many years I
tried to interest Badger Modelflex to produce a whole line of accurate
steam-era freight car colors, but thus far to no avail. I recommend
using the same color that Branchline Trains used on their MP 40' box
car models by creating your own mixture of your preferred type of
paint.

Photos of MoPac's DeSoto-built box cars during 1953-54 show that the
roofs were coated with black car cement. I am uncertain when this
practice was begun or when it ceased. Regardless of the original roof
color, photos show that the roof coating tended to start peeling rather
quickly (within a few years) eventually leaving a bare galvanized
surface on the flat portion of the roof panels. Repainted cars
typically received freight car red on the sides, ends, and roof.
Regards,
Ed Hawkins