I'm trying to help on another project. Does anyone have current, modern paint data for Chessie System? I have the old DuPont codes but they don't translate to anything in current paint formulations. I'm chasing down my usual paths for info but I figured I'd post here, too in case someone has done a project in the 2000s.

Any good info will get added to the cross reference in a future update.

Thanks.

Since I've finally managed to break back into the site for a moment or two, Eric, here's what they currently are according to my thread which has now fallen all the way down to Page 5 of the Interchange board and continues to slowly descend ever further...

http://www.mixmaster.biz/v_formulas/Sys ... &code=2063

http://www.mixmaster.biz/v_formulas/Sys ... code=24592

http://www.mixmaster.biz/v_formulas/Sys ... code=K9590

;)

Pete - The blue and yellow might be close. I can't tell by looking at samples online. The vermillion, your orange, doesn't look close at all.

To my eye, the Chessie blue looked more like B&O's Bando blue than C&O's Enchantment blue. Bando is darker. Your yellow may be a bit too light. I think it leaned more towards chrome yellow, sort of like standard school bus yellow. Hard to say. The vermillion should be a really bright red with an orange-ish tint.

I'd be interested in how you cross referenced those. I can't consider them if images were involved.

Are you helping the Lebanon Mason Monroe Railroad with the GP-30 (still in Chessie colors) that they rescued from Silvis?

This one's a private owner caboose project.

https://mcwfinishes.com/shop/ols/search ... d_by_match

This company custom mixed paint from paint swatches. Quite a few modelers have used to. Might be able to use it to get as close as possible as you can.

-Joe

Oh boy, I don't think I can resist doing this... LOL

Anybody got any contacts with Huntington Shops? They redid the GE unit CSX donated to the museum in Northeast, PA about a decade ago in fresh Chessie paint. Also, CSX did recently paint a unit in Chessie colors for Chessie System as part of their "heritage" unit series (although the lettering on it is far too small).

Matching to model paints is iffy for me. You don't know how they came up with the colors and a lot of them are off the mark especially when you look compare them in the sunlight.

I've contacted Northeast. They don't have the info and their contact has moved on. That unit came out of the Huntington shops.

The heritage unit was done at Waycross in 2023. Bill Matlock was or still is the plant manager. I don't have contact info for him. If anyone does, send it via PM.

I still have a few feelers out. We'll see what happens....

Here you go, Eric...

https://paintref.com/cgi-bin/paintdetai ... upont=7851

I'll bet my left nut DuPont 7851 crosses to DuPont 2063. I could color match it if I'd ever obtain a Ford fleet deck but they've been somewhat unobtainable so far, at least for me. The other codes listed may help, however.

Since it's a caboose, no need to worry about the "vermilion" orange so things are looking a bit brighter already.

:)

I don't know about the no need to worry about the vermilion on a caboose. I just looked up some Chessie caboose photos from the early '80s and there are either vermilion or red stripes on the top and bottom of the cars (hard to tell for sure, since Kodachrome tended to lean towards the red end of the spectrum). It also looked like the lettering and logo were black, not dark blue? I'll admit I didn't photograph many cabooses in those days, and if I did, it was mostly ones that had not been repainted into Chessie colors, since they were the "threatened" ones, or the "Safety" cabooses, because they were oddities.

As for painting a locomotive in Chessie colors, John Corns did a photo series once when he was their photographer, on how they painted an engine. The base coat of the entire unit was the dark blue, then the rest of the colors were put on by masking off where the other colors were not wanted. If I recall correctly, the cost for painting a locomotive in the early 1980s was around $7K, which is one reason the first CSX paint scheme was just blue and grey.

Thanks, Paul. I probably should've looked as well but I see the orange now. Glad I didn't wager on that one.

There are no codes publicly available for that color which tie it to the Chessie System so I've been resorting to unproven methods in my thread in a valiant attempt to ascertain it. So far, it seems to center around International Valencia Orange which has been on the fleet charts since 1950. It appears to be tinted similarly to the yellow and, in combination, works well with it.

Nassau County, New York uses Valencia Orange on their police cars and other municipal vehicles so it can be seen there as a potential alternative example. I have yet to find an International truck in this color but I remain confident there's one out there somewhere. Anyway, I'll continue to play with the paint chips I have on hand and see what happens. FAFO!!!

The caboose roofs appear to be Aluminum. Hard to screw that up. LOL

Contact the Chesapeake & Ohio Historical Society at COHS.org. Several members have researched this issue over the years and they can almost certainly put you in contact with one or more members who have reseached this issue.

I quick check of my materials does has not turned up anything but I will dig a little deeper among my back issues of the C & O Historical Magazine/Newsletter.

I need to look in my archives to see who to contact there. They do have the paint and lettering diagram and I'll see about getting a copy for dimensions though it's going to have old color codes.

My contact for PPG can no longer access PPG's industrial coatings records since Pittsburgh Paints was spun off and he's now with Pittsburgh Paints.

Other than the possibility of COHS or even CSX if I can get to someone at the Waycross shop, I'm starting to strike out. Seems most of my old RR contacts are retiring or moving on.

Paul - The lettering was actually blue though it was darker than C&O's blue, more like Bando blue which, when fresh, is dark enough to look black in some lighting situations, especially on a yellow background.