And now the Emmaus station postcard finally made it in here but on a whole screenshot of a classic example of things that make you go HMMMM...

BTW, that's D5f #276 pulling up to the Annville station in the Harpel pic. I guess the Reading did reuse some of the lower loco numbers after the diesels arrived. Here's another shot of the same engine dated as 1916...

http://www.northeast.railfan.net/images/rdg276s.jpg

Zoomed in on it for a better look...

Actually, if Chevy Coppertone is the correct color which I believe it is, then that would explain why many Reading models I've seen look too dark to me...

Back to Woodfield...

Chevrolet Truck Seacrest Green and 1938 Chevrolet Terrace Green are not the same color but Chevrolet Truck Seacrest Green and 1935 Buick Runnymeade Green are the same color... LOL

Here's the color on its earliest listed use, a 1929 Hudson, where it is called Seacrest Green.

I'd have to say this one definitely originated pre-war...

Seacrest Green is Ditzler code IM-59...

http://paintref.com/cgi-bin/paintdetail ... tzler=IM59

As far as the timeline is concerned, it looks like we're now very good to go on this one... LOL

EDIT: The 1937 Buick and Oldsmobile Runymead/Runnymead Green is not the same color so I nuked what I had posted and replaced it with this here 1947 Acme formula and chip pic instead.

Hey, that's what can happen when you get excited and do this in real time. LOL

Here's the Annville station close to around the same year. The interlocking has been installed and the chimney is now also painted brown. The Reading didn't need a tower here since the building sat in the middle of a long tangent and trains could be seen for miles in each direction from ground level...

Since I'm rapidly running out of Reading paint colors to do, I might as well finish up with the station. LOL This one's from 1967 after passenger service was discontinued and the interlocking removed. Some modifications to the structure have taken place and it's now clad with asphalt shingles. Any and all electrical boxes, along with signal stands, signposts, etc., were painted in Aluminum...

Finally, this is the seventies life-after-people version I remember. The station is now boarded up and communications from the scene are being handled by another one of those wooden tongue and groove phone boxes painted brown. The basement doors look like they're in the Bilco reddish-brown Sherwin-Williams primer color instead of the brown seen in the last pic but I think those are still the originals. The same effect can be seen on the brown caboose roofs at times when the sun's hitting it just right. Something to ponder, I guess. LOL

For what happened to it afterward, I'll just let the Fiends of Olde Millerstown take it from here. Be sure to click on the link at the bottom of the page...

https://www.fooa.org/preserve/station/

Overall, I'd say the station turned out well although it may not be completely accurate in historical terms. Considering what it's been through, it's definitely better than not having it at all.

I figured I'd flash the Autumn Brown and Coppertone chips with the Maglite so you guys can get a sense of how they behave in relation to each other. I see some generic covered hopper light grays beginning to appear there to the right of the Coppertone so there's a very good chance we'll be covering those here shortly... LOL

The 93-035 Brown chip closely matches the brown on the trim in our bedroom so I know that one's too dark and otherwise just not right. LOL The green in the upper left, 93-24442, Plate #127, International Adirondack Green, should look familiar to quite a few of us since that was, and may still be, the color of Blue Bird school bus seat frames.

The Coppertone appears as though it's the color the FOOA is attempting to emulate on the interior trim of the station...

And there it is!!! Looks like I'll be adding Chevrolet Truck Coppertone to the final list... LOL

...and I'd have to say we're good with the Chevrolet Truck Autumn Brown as well...

I guess the moral of the story there is to never discount old postcards when it comes to attempting to determine old paint colors. Even if they can't give you the exact code, they can always help point you in the right direction.

The history of paint is almost as fascinating as the history of railroads. Here's a nice little synopsis of the modern paint era...

https://www.ndsu.edu/fileadmin/croll/Hi ... intSGC.pdf

Looks like 1923 is about as far back as we can go with DuPont. Before that, Sherwin-Williams was the pioneer in the field. They began to sell ready-mixed paint around 1875 and introduced the reclosable can in 1877...

https://www.company-histories.com/The-S ... story.html

They do have a nice little historical selection for homeowners and others going for that vibe...

https://www.sherwin-williams.com/homeow ... collection

Now, I've got to figure out how to handle the covered hopper grays since, well, they're grays. LOL Maybe I'll start by posting the lightest four potentially applicable chips from the Martin-Senour catalog. Suede Gray is at the bottom...