"rail roads" Topic

hi .can anyone tell me the colour of confederate and union rail road box cars ? please

Any color you want. Dark reds, browns, grays, and yellowish ochres were popular. The railroads were not owned by the military.

brilliant ! thank you sir

Agree with 79thPA. The railroads were private concerns and the individual railroad companies selected their own colors. Think cheap and hence subdued shades, not expensive, bright versions of 79thPA's suggested colors.

There was an organization in the North called the Unted States Military Railroad (USMRR), which operated on captured Southern lines and had their own rolling stock. I understand four of their railcars are on display at Ft. Gregg-Adams (used to be Fort Lee) in southern Virginia. I searched for pictures of them, but the best I could find was colored photos of model railroads (apparently USMRR is a reasonably popular thing to model). These were painted ochre yellow and what looked like the olive green used for Civil War artillery equipment (not WWII olive drab! This was a brighter green). Engines and rolling stock would be labeled USMRR. You might have better luck searching than I did.
I don't recall seeing these boxcars during my own visit to Ft. Lee (this was in 1997, long before it was renamed). Maybe somebody else has seen them and has photos.

Grelber

thank for your input and much appreciated
.another replay from YouTube model railroad suggested that W&ARR was a dark slate blue for their boxcars .i painted this model a pale reddish brown . but with all this help could re paint ,cannot find decals for either USMRR or W&ARR was really wanting this box car for the southern states . ON30 scale .

If you are just looking for the flavor of the era I would suggest the YouTube videos on Tom Radice's Western & Atlantic, which you've seen, and Bernie Kempinski's Aquia Division of the USMR. Both depict rolling stock. Sadly the Yahoo Group ACW RR website is no longer up and running because they had a folder on rolling stock colors. As I recall Western & Atlantic was slate gray. Reddish-brown and yellow ochre would have been used, but so would more vibrant colors. Especially for passenger cars. The Smithsonian has a ca. 1850 passenger car that is green with black accents. IIRC Lincoln's car was mahogany or chocolate brown. Decals will be a problem. If you are doing enough cars you can get them custom made.

If you really want to go down the rabbit hole of 19th century railroading I would recommend the books by John White on locomotives, wood freight cars and passenger cars.

From Groups io, CivilWarRailroads group:
Go to Photos for a nice pic of a USMRR boxcar.
link
Files section will get some other excellent info!

thank you .this is what the miniatures page is all about .appreciated.