On Apr 25, 2008, at 10:42 AM, Gatwood, Elden J SAD wrote:

olks;

I don't know if you all were aware of this, so it may bear repeating;
I
believe Misters Pat Wider, Ed Hawkins, and et al., published an
article in
one of the early RPCyCs on BoxCar Painting and Lettering that had
info from
AC&F files on what the RRs (B&O included) wanted their box cars
painted, with
some model RR paint formulae attached. You may get some ideas from
that
excellent article.

Elden Gatwood

Elden,
Thank you for the article reference, which was in RP CYC Vol. 3. The
specific B&O freight car red paint samples that we matched to various
hobby paints were limited to AC&F-built box cars from 1947 to 1951
(M-58, M-60, and M-61 classes). During this period these samples ranged
from oxide red (similar to that used by UP and a number of other
railroads) to very bright zinc chromate primer. The paint names
included Pittsburgh Synthetic Red and Thresher Varnish Co. Freight Car
Red. These samples can be viewed in the applicable bills of materials
that are located at the St. Louis Mercantile Library (Barriger National
Railroad Library).

Information contained in some earlier Pullman-Standard bills of
materials of B&O box cars built in 1941-1942 (M-55A and M-57 classes)
specifies the paint names as "Brown" with a B&O spec. number 43-H-1.
Unfortunately I don't have any paint samples from these earlier cars,
but the paint names provide a basis that the B&O standard box car color
changed in a significant way between 1942 and 1947 from Brown to Red.
Regards,
Ed Hawkins