Picking the Right Paint Color

You want a locomotive for a specific railroad, but nobody makes it, so you have to paint your own.  First, you need to match the paint.  You ask the guys at the club, and they tell you a paint color.  You contact the railroad's historical society, and they tell you another paint color.  You find someone who used to work for the railroad, and he tells you a third paint color.  Finally, you go to a paint specialist, and you wind up with a fourth paint color.  Each person claims that his paint color is a perfect match to what the railroad used, and don't use a different color.  Now you are even more confused than you were before.  But here's the catch:  They are all wrong.

First of all, let's take a look at how color works.  When you look at an object, the color you see is the color reflected off the object's surface.  If the object is blue, then all the other visible light wavelengths hit the object and are absorbed, but the specific wavelength for the color of that object is reflected back and that is the color you see.  However, there are factors that affect the way it appears.  Different colors of light can change the color of the object, as well as the angle the light hits the object and the angle that you view the object.  If you compare two photos of the same locomotive taken at the same time on different days, one sunny day and one cloudy day, the color of that locomotive will appear different in both photos because the color of the light hitting it is different.  If you compare the color of the different surfaces on the same locomotive, the colors will also appear different, because you are looking at them from different angles.

More specific to trains, there are other factors that affect the way a color looks to our eyes.  A locomotive that was repainted yesterday and a locomotive that has been out in the sun for 10 years will be different colors, even if they were painted from the same bucket of paint.  The sun fades the paint, making it look lighter over the years.  Dirt, rust, soot, and grime also affect the color of the locomotive, because no matter how hard you scrub the dirt off, there will always be some there.

Let's take a look at the models again.  Realistically, will anyone notice if the paint color you use is slightly different from the exact color the railroad used?  Yes, you say, but actually, even if you do track down the exact paint color, it will probably appear wrong if it were possible to notice such small differences.  What kind of lighting do you have in your train room?  How does it compare to outdoor lighting?  What angle do you view the trains on your layout?  How does it compare with watching real trains?  How long have your models been left out in the sun?  How much dirt has accumulated on them?  When you come right down to it, there is no such thing as an exact paint match, because even on the real railroad, two identical locomotives painted from the same paint bucket can appear different from each other.

Now I'll let you in on another secret.  When selecting a paint color for my fictional railroad, the Merrimack & Souhegan Railroad, I bought a can of dark blue spray paint at Walmart because it was cheap and I liked the color.  As it turns out, it is a good match for Pan Am Railways locomotives, and I have used it to paint one of their engines.  My friend John also uses the same Walmart spray can to model CSX and Baltimore & Ohio locomotives.  I haven't modeled any, but it could probably be used for Alaska Railroad blue and Santa Fe freight warbonnet blue.  The truth is, manufacturers don't want to buy unique paint colors for specific railroads, so they will reuse the same color on other railroads.  Just because the paint bottle is labeled "Reading Green" doesn't mean you can't use it for a different railroad, because in real life, someone probably did.  In fact, I use Reading Green for corrugated steel warehouses and wooden window frames.

What it comes down to is this:  The only perfect match you can get is among your own models.  If you use a specific paint color for one locomotive, use that same one on the next locomotive you paint.  Nobody, not even that guy from the historical society or the paint specialist, will notice the slight difference between your models and the real thing.  However, if you use slightly different paints on different models that are supposed to be identical, most people will notice that.  So don't fret about matching the paint on your models to the paint on the real thing, the biggest concern here is matching the paint on your models to the paint on your other models.