All,

I am currently working on a project to restore 2 former RDG passenger cars with permanent and lasting repairs. One of the biggest issues is rusted away steel where the roof and letter board meet at the rivet line. I wish I had a better idea on how these cars were constructed. Any pictures or information would be helpful. Calls / e-mails to the Reading Company Technical & Historical Society have gone unanswered.

Also, does anyone have DUPONT IMRON codes for the reading commuter passenger cars?

Thank you!

Which paint scheme? I'm no expert on the Reading but I've seen like maybe three different schemes??? I might be able to cross reference the colors but that's a long shot.

The Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania restored one not long ago; have you reached out to them?

Joshua K. Blay

Good question. I would say black roof and dark green car body. Thank you.

No, I have not. Do you have a contact?

Here is a reference source from Railfonts http://railfonts.com/Reference/paint_cross.pdf
This will give you a starting base to start your research. The Folks at Reading Tech must have this information on hand.
Another reference chart from RYPN posting is https://bigeprod.com/literature/rrPres/paintRef.pdf

The Reading had multiple paint schemes as identified by another poster so you may have a decision based on "time" painted by Reading shops. The Reading company was very thrifty and some painting decisions must have been made with "it is what we have" decisions.

I can recall solid Pullman green and two tone green, window band light green with rest of car Pullman like green. I can recall various shades of Pullman green in one train.
These number cars were not necessarily "commuter" cars. They were used as passenger cars for non electrified service. Later they were used as trailers but that was towards the end of the Reading.

hope this helps
Brian Shannon

Brian - There's a sticky at the top of the interchange posts that has links to my rr preservation page. A huge color cross reference can be found there. There's also some good info in that topic.

Dwa.... Here's the direct link to the cross reference: https://bigeprod.com/literature/rrPres/paintRef.pdf

RCT&HS sold a packet of passenger car diagrams but these don't show specifics of roof construction. Both Wanamaker Kempton and Southern and New Hope and Ivyland have RDG coaches. They would know about the roof-letterboard construction. The restored car at RRMPA is MU car 800 that differs from your cars in its structure. However, the paint would be the correct single green color for 1158 and 1341.

1158 is a class PBn 84-seat bare-bones suburban car that was built with a single-deck* (arch) roof. It would have always been painted the same shade of green as the RRMPA MU car.

1341 is an older PBm coach with 78 seats. It was built with a double-deck* (clerestory) roof and rebuilt at Reading Shops with a single-deck roof. Unlike other roads that superimposed sheet metal over an existing clerestory roof so the cars would look more modern, RDG Shops removed the old roof and installed a new single-deck roof.

Some of the 1300's were modernized after WWII and received two-tone green paint - dark body with lighter green window area and no striping separating the colors. Neither shade of green was the shade used on the unmodernized cars. WK&S has painted their cars in the two-tone paint. If you look at photos from the 1960's and 1970's, the 5 skirted wide-window cars on the push-pull train were in the two-tone paint and the unskirted narrow-window car (1541) was in the dark green single-tone.

Both cars would have black roofs. In the 1960's and 1970's some of the MU cars got silver-painted roofs, but that was limited to the MU cars.

Phil Mulligan

* - RDG shop workers used German terms for the car roofs. PA Dutch is not a quaint historical footnote.

I'm sorry, I don't. It was an 800 series car, but still they might have some helpful information. Possibly the state archives as well in Philadelphia or the Hagley Museum & Library in DE?

Best,

Joshua

Lumber museum in PA: try "lumbermuseum.org"

Harry

Thank you!

Thank you!

For PPG coatings, I have 42791 as Pullman green and 81649 for the imitation gold lettering. Search for "Pullman Sleeper Color Test" in this forum and there will be photos of the above green in that topic. I'd post a link but copy/paste/link in the forum with this old iPad I'm using right now is a little problematic.

If you're looking at urethane paint like Imron, I'd advise against that if you're spraying it yourself - airborne overspray is very toxic. Stick with automotive paints. If you get something different than PPG, let me know and I'll add it to the list.

On a side note, I see I still need to correct the list for the imitation gold. I'll do that later today and upload a new copy.

Am just now seeing this discussion since I don't have the time to monitor RyPN every day.

The archives of the Reading Company Technical & Historical Society includes thousands of original manufacturers drawings of steel passenger cars of the Reading Railroad. Anyone can contact us to schedule an appointment to do research in our Archives housed at our Reading Railroad Heritage Museum in Hamburg, Pa. We've replied at least twice in recent months to inquiries from the Stewartstown group, so I don't know where the communications breakdown is occurring. We are quite aware that former Reading RR passenger cars are today owned by a variety of other tourist lines and preservation groups, and we're happy to assist them in finding drawings useful to them.

The RCT&HS can be contacted through our website at http://www.readingrailroad.org or via email at info@readingrailroad.org.

-- Rick Bates
RCT&HS Archivist

Not sure if they would have any diagrams, but I would suggest contacting the New Hope & Ivyland Railroad, since they have a decent amount of former Reading coaches.