Oops, I modeled Barbie's private car

[InterurbanModels]

In my frantic search to reproduce every fancy North American passenger car livery of the late 30ies to early 50ies, I couldn't pass the Atlantic Coast Line purple scheme. I applied it to a generic heavyweight coach.

Now, I'm not entirely sure about that, as it comes out of the printer... I haven't had the chance to get close to a preserved/ restored exemplary (it seems a purple ACL E3a is alive), so I did it with what I got first hand, purple colors are not common.

It don't really match my Life-Like ACL E8a, their purple is more bluish and less magenta. Perhaps a decent weathering on the car could could lessen the difference. But I will do nothing until the ordered ACL E7a from Broadway has arrived next days.

And anyway, perhaps some little girl will like just this car when it makes some rounds at a train show...   

[mcjaco]

Purple is a terrible pigment for heavy use equipment.  It fades quickly in the sun.  So I'd say you may not be that far off. 

[thomasjmdavis]

Well, you are in good company- many manufacturers have tried and failed to emulate ACL purple.  But... I was REALLY disappointed in the Wheels of Time version of 10-ish years ago on their baggage car (one of the reasons I hate pre-orders-  it was MUCH bluer than the artwork used to sell me the car). Your color would pass for a car due for a paint job.
I don't have any of the MTL cars, but I would bet theirs are much closer.  Or Lowell Smith's.

My own go-to is Badger's Modelflex ACL purple for a newly painted car (I have no idea if there is a filament or resin color to match).  But, as I said, it is a matter of opinion as much as anything.  Photos show some weathered cars in bright sunlight looking not unlike the color in your sample above, others with some dirt or soot on them, are 'browner'- more like a weathered PRR coach.

As a matter of curiosity, are you doing all these cars with commercially available filament colors, or are you using some trade secret method to achieve the colors?  You're C&EI cars looked really good, in terms of color matching, but the ACL purple is definitely on the light side.
'

[InterurbanModels]

Color printing is a classic "dilemma" : On one side I am making a lot of field research in train museums with my color chips, checking for the perfect or nearest match. On the other hand I have to deal with commercial products I want to associate, not always they have the right color, so sometimes it is better to have a "near hit" instead of the true shade.
The difference with liquid paints is that you can't alter the shade of filament with a shot of black or white or anything. Matte varnish and weathering can only alter a little.

As a matter of curiosity, are you doing all these cars with commercially available filament colors, or are you using some trade secret method to achieve the colors?  You're C&EI cars looked really good, in terms of color matching, but the ACL purple is definitely on the light side.

I matched the C&EI to an Intermountain F7, I think IM got the C&EI colors right. The tinted filaments are commercially available, but expensive (Colorfabb). They are based on the German RAL industrial system, but they can match nearly any North American Railroad color, including such odds as a true "PRR DGLE", PRR Tuscan red (both the real and the Kato version...), a Louisville & Nashville blue, and many others.
The value of Colorfabb filaments is not only the stable shade, but the fact that they are opaque and don't blend.

Unsurprisingly I have now a lot of shades of green, brown and red, because the human eye can distinguish them very well.

[chessie system fan]

Having stood next to a freshly painted purple ACL passenger car at a museum a few days ago, the Life-Like color is very close to the original color shade before they faded.

[daniel_leavitt2000]

Purple is a terrible pigment for heavy use equipment.  It fades quickly in the sun.  So I'd say you may not be that far off. 

Screams in MBTA.

[InterurbanModels]

Screams in MBTA.

That, when you saying it, I think that the shade I used (RAL 4008) would match perfectly MBTA purple. For the ACL car I have of course a plan B.

[thomasjmdavis]

Since the IMRC C&Ei F units were mentioned, when I first got mine, I thought both the blue and orange were much too dark.  Then I took it outside on a sunny day- and in sunlight, it was spot on. 

[davefoxx]

Purple is a terrible pigment for heavy use equipment.  It fades quickly in the sun.  So I'd say you may not be that far off. 

That’s the reason why the ACL abandoned the purple in or around 1957. Repainting rolling stock and locomotives every few years is expensive.  This is when the black and yellow ACL scheme was adopted, which was also used by the successor Seaboard Coast Line.

DFF

[Ed Kapuscinski]

That’s the reason why the ACL abandoned the purple in or around 1957. Repainting rolling stock and locomotives every few years is expensive.  This is when the black and yellow ACL scheme was adopted, which was also used by the successor Seaboard Coast Line.

DFF

I always thought it was surprising that, being a railroad in the south, they went with the color that absorbs the MOST heat. That continues to perplex me.

[Jimbo]

I always thought it was surprising that, being a railroad in the south, they went with the color that absorbs the MOST heat. That continues to perplex me.

Frankly, I’m guessing that it’s not likely that ACL painted many cars in purple, anyway.

Their streamliners were all stainless steel/silver, and color photos I’ve seen of the heavyweight Pullman cars they retained all were in Pullman green.

I’ve only seen a very few photos of ACL coaches & head end cars (RPOs, baggage cars) that were in purple paint.

I understand that they chose purple because Champion McDowell Davis liked purple.

@davefoxx - please correct me if I’m wrong; I’m hardly an expert on ACL/SAL history!   

Jim

[davefoxx]

I always thought it was surprising that, being a railroad in the south, they went with the color that absorbs the MOST heat. That continues to perplex me.

A black locomotive body color was used by the Southern Ry. and is still used by Norfolk Southern, so it’s not that unusual for the Deep South.  Probably has to do with black paint being inexpensive as compared to other colors.  That black taking abuse in the summer heat, though, might explain the Seaboard Coast Line eventually changing to a gray body color, which was also used by the Seaboard System and early CSX.

DFF

[davefoxx]

Frankly, I’m guessing that it’s not likely that ACL painted many cars in purple, anyway.

Their streamliners were all stainless steel/silver, and color photos I’ve seen of the heavyweight Pullman cars they retained all were in Pullman green.

I’ve only seen a very few photos of ACL coaches & head end cars (RPOs, baggage cars) that were in purple paint.

I understand that they chose purple because Champion McDowell Davis liked purple.

@davefoxx - please correct me if I’m wrong; I’m hardly an expert on ACL/SAL history!   

Jim

Jim,

As best as I can tell, the ACL began painting head-end cars in the purple and silver scheme in 1947 with the delivery of Refrigerator Express Cars.  By the early 1950s, most of the heavyweight fleet was painted purple.  But, yeah, that purple paint didn’t hold up well, so many of the heavyweight cars were repainted in Pullman Green after 1957.  Some of those purple head-end cars survived deep into the 1960s, but the paint was definitely showing some age.  I’ve seen a photo of a purple baggage car coupled to a Seaboard Coast Line E8 in 1967.

DFF

[Iain]

Clinton Terminal also painted one of their CF-7s in ACL purple, but it flaked off faster than it faded.