Model Forum / General / Railroads / June 2004

I don't know what you mean by Blue Goose passenger cars.  The Blue Goose was
a 4-6-4 locomotive and had nothing to do with passenger cars.  The color
photos of SF passenger cars that I have seem to show the window shades as a
light gray, but I am not sure of the color.

Stuart Sabatini
Palm Coast, FL

The passenger cars only exist in the model world.  The ATSF never had
passenger cars that color.  Would have been cool though.  Make 'em
whatever looks good to you.

Greg

As several others have responded, the ATSF did not have 2-tone blue cars.
However, the ATSF did run many cars in the Pullman pool two-tone gray scheme
which might be a good prototype for the non-prototype cars.

But the OP raises a good question - what color were passenger car window
shades?

All the pix of heavyweights I can find are B&W and show shades of a dark
color.  My vague recollection is that they were a dark olive green, just
like the room darkening roller shades in my old grammar school (it was
always a sign of a good break when they came down - maybe a film strip, or
better when the Bell & Howell 16 mm was rolled in!!).  Of course RR shades
were always thicker two-layer construction -  were they dark olive to match
the Pullman green body, or for the same room darkening quality?  Were the
insides a different color to match the car interior?  Most of my experience
was with the shades in the old Illinois Central Pullman built electric
suburban cars - I recall these as being dark olive inside and out.

The color pix I have of lightweight cars are mostly of stainless steel cars,
and they show a neutral gray color widow shade exterior color.  Was this
used to match the tone of the unpainted metal?  Were other exterior shade
colors used on painted smooth side cars? My recollections as a passenger are
that the inside of the shades tended to complement the car interior color
scheme, and sometimes included patterns.  Some photos show Venetian blinds
in cars instead of solid shades, although the blinds seem to be used most
often in observation and lounge cars.

I recall that the typical color for roller shades in older buildings (Design
Preservation era), when room darkening was not required (as in office
buildings), was a mid tan or buff color, which can be modeled nicely with
masking tape.  My impression is that this color was not often used on
passenger cars.

Can anyone refine these observations?  Some thing else to check out next
time I visit an RR museum.  Gary Q