C&O colors in 1917?

[randgust]

I posed this to the C&O historical society and haven't had an answer, lets try you guys.

In researching my Cole Bros circus train in 1917, I found a wonderful article about the entire train - a car by car description, right down to the number of horses and what color they were....and a mystery.    Train was in Stockton, CA.

Writer raved about the cars, all new, all steel...and "painted in the warm Chesapeake & Ohio colors".

What tha...   OK, well, first, Cole Bros has been red since...   and second I always thing of C&O as dark blue and yellow.   

What possible color combination(s) could be called "warm" for C&O of that era?   

If anybody wants a link to the Google Books "Billboard" article this is described in, PM me, I can prove it, but I'm baffled by that. 

The following year the owner, J. Augustus Jones, was kicked in the knee by a circus horse, leg shattered, developed infection and died, the entire operation was closed and sold, so there's no other record here, the cars and wagons were all resold to others.    That's the only description of the colors I've ever seen.

[davefoxx]

@randgust:

I don't think of Enchantment Blue, Gray, and Yellow as becoming a C&O thing until the early diesel/streamliner era.  But, if it helps, here's a link to a photo supposedly taken in 1963 at the "Huntington celebration of the West Virginia Centennial" and shows "a baggage car in early 1900's C&O livery."  If anything, it certainly matches the description of "warm" color.  According to a two-year-old post under the photo, "[t]he car is currently in the B&O Railroad Museum in Baltimore, Maryland."

https://www.flickr.com/photos/10520947@N08/5419380681

Hope this helps,
DFF

[Kentuckian]

Yes, orange. I cannot cite chapter and verse, but before the PM became part of the C&O the color associated with the C&O was orange.

[randgust]

Oh,....WOW.    I had no idea.

You guys are good.

You have to imagine an entire circus train painted that way, but now it's not particularly hard, either

The red (maroon) letterboards are a big plus here, that's the hardest part, as I've done several of those and they wouldn't have to be redone.   That looks like a really strong reefer orange to me, as there's no particular known shade, it just reminded the article writer of "Chesapeake & ohio colors' sort of like we'd say that second generation Cuyahoga Valley looked suspiciously like KCS colors (true, by the way).   

Edit:  Went out on the C&O Historical Society archives search and found more color pictures of that combine in orange and maroon taken in 1952.   Once I knew the car number it was easy.    I really appreciate the response here, that picked the locks.   And the "coach 400" shot out there (B&W) shows a truly elegant side of C&O that I never realized existed.  What a beautiful car that was.   It also looks like that orange color with maroon was carried forward on the streamlined steam for a while, anyway.    Reminds me of the Milwaukee Road in some ways.