Great Northern Railway green paint scheme

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Glenn Brooks
Posts: 2930
Joined: Mon Nov 10, 2014 1:39 pm
Location: Woodinville, Washington

Great Northern Railway green paint scheme

Post by Glenn Brooks »

Anybody know a crossover color for the great Northern Railway dark green boiler jacket color to a Sherwin Williams or Benjamin Moore paint color.

Also, Out of curiosity was Baldwin green a different color than Pullman green and were these different from the Great Northern dark green?

Thanks
Glenn
Moderator - Grand Scale Forum

Motive power : 1902 A.S.Campbell 4-4-0 American - 12 5/8" gauge, 1955 Ottaway 4-4-0 American 12" gauge

Ahaha, Retirement: the good life - drifting endlessly on a Sea of projects....
Kevin S
Posts: 81
Joined: Sun Apr 11, 2010 4:11 pm
Location: Rocklin, CA

Re: Great Northern Railway green paint scheme

Post by Kevin S »

One thing I have done to get a color match is to go and buy the small bottles sold at the hobby store for H.O. models and take that with me to the paint store. From there I choose a color that is a close match, if you are a few shades off either way no one can tell the difference.
-Kevin S.
NCBQGUY
Posts: 39
Joined: Sat Oct 27, 2012 5:41 pm

Re: Great Northern Railway green paint scheme

Post by NCBQGUY »

Glenn
Contact the GH Historical Society. IIRC the green for boiler jackets is a much different color than the Empire Builder green. They produced color chips which included the boiler jacket color and might have some paint advice for you.
Charlie Vlk
Glenn Brooks
Posts: 2930
Joined: Mon Nov 10, 2014 1:39 pm
Location: Woodinville, Washington

Re: Great Northern Railway green paint scheme

Post by Glenn Brooks »

Kevin and Charlie,

Thanks for your replies. I did stumble onto the hobby store paint idea this afternoon and sourced some GN glacier green, plus some SP passenger terminal green - which actually looks pretty good.

The hobby store guy said they used to have Baldwin Green - a dark olive green color, and GN Green, also sort of olive green - but the two primary paint suppliers went out of business, and so they no longer have a supplier to buy product from. And no more in stock. He suggested buying a bottle of Black and mixing small dabs until I got the color, hue and saturation I like. Which I have done. Except of course I have no idea how close my paint samples are to the original standard.

Still hoping to harvest some knowledge from someone who might know about the formulations of the original colors.

Pullman green, Baldwin Geeen, and GN green seem to be a bit different. But so far, I haven't found paint chipss on line that show how much different.

Very interesting search so far!

One thing I have learned. Surprisingly, most loco's coming out of Builders factories were NOT BLAck. Baldwin, for example, painted most everything an olive green from 1870 to 1957, unless specified by the buyer. Even back woods logging engines were typically green. Only got painted black after they beat up and rebuilt!

Glenn
Moderator - Grand Scale Forum

Motive power : 1902 A.S.Campbell 4-4-0 American - 12 5/8" gauge, 1955 Ottaway 4-4-0 American 12" gauge

Ahaha, Retirement: the good life - drifting endlessly on a Sea of projects....
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