Early 1900s freight car underbody paint colors

[friscomike]

Howdy folks,

Many early, i.e., truss rod freight cars had wood frames.  I'm curious what color the railroads would have painted them, black or body color.  I'm sure railroads were different, but I'm trying to understand the color I want to use on flat cars. 

Your thoughts?

Have fun,
mike

[Rick]

Mike, wish I would have known you needed this while I was at the last two RR museums I was at.
I'm sure someone here will know the answer.

[deemery]

Well, no matter what color they were originally painted, the undercarriages rapidly turned into dirty brown-grey, from the dirt, cinders and dust picked up from the roadbed.  I usually use roof brown or a dark grey with brown mixed in. 

From my careful examination of the PRR GG wood hopper at the PA RR Museum, it seems the undercarriage was painted the same color as the rest of the car.

My photos of that car start here:  http://davebert.photos/Strasburg-Mar14/index9.html   There's two sets of photos, page through.  The reason I spent so much time peering at that car was to see if I could find any paint that I could tag as "the original paint color".  There's been a lot of debate about what color 19th century PRR cars were painted. Suggestions range from 'lighter Tuscan' to 'red oxide' to 'almost orange'. 

dave

[jbvb]

"Boxcar Red" and "Barn Red" of that era used the cheapest, most durable pigment available: Iron Oxide.  But you can make different forms of Iron Oxide, thus the variations in color of fresh rust vs. old rust, and Dave's "almost orange".

[friscomike]

Howdy folks

Thanks, Rick, Dave, and James.  Your responses were just what I needed to get started.  Painting is underway.

Have fun,
mike

[Philip]

Great Photos Dave!

[jbvb]

One thing I've seen in wood-bodied trolley restorations is underbody ironwork painted black, while wood unmderbody parts get another color.  But this was passenger-carrying equipment and the trolley companies wanted to emphasize how much cleaner their ride was - no smoke, soot or ash.

[deemery]

Ironwork was often painted black (I think with some tar-like paint), which apparently lasted longer/prevented rusting.  In the PRR Passenger car photos (link I posted), the ironwork is painted black.

dave