Canadian Pacific Railway Paint Information

Reference / Historic Railroad Paint Color Index / Canadian Pacific Railway TOC

Freight Cars

Early-1880s

Freight cars painted buff (yellow ochre + white lead) with blackened ironwork. Photographs generally show buff-coloured cars with end sheathing and roofs painted mineral brown or oxide red.

Specification of 33-foot Box Car

Specification of 33-foot Cattle Car

1898

CPR trucks painted black.

Lethbridge News (Lethbridge, AB), 22 June 1898

Passenger Cars

Early-1880s?

CPR passenger cars painted yellow.

1883

CPR parlour car bodies unpainted, high polished mahogany, with gilt ornamentations.

National Car Builder, March 1883, pg. 25

CPR sleeping cars painted in the company’s standard colour, richly ornamented in maroon and gold.

National Car Builder, June 1883, pg. 65

1891

CPR parlour car, “Penobscot,” exterior body a “rich reddish brown,” with gilt lettering.

The Portland Daily Press (Portland, ME), 12 August 1891

CPR palace car “Jeannette” was painted dark green, detailed with gold leaf, and had platforms with bronze railings.

The Gazette (Montreal, QC), 19 August 1891

1893

CPR passenger cars “varnished but not painted,” with the colour being dark red. Lettering in gold, edged in black.

The Railway Engineer, May 1893, pg. 138

CPR sleeping car body unpainted; finished in Honduras mahogany.

The National Car and Locomotive Builder, June 1893, pg. 87

A new transcontinental passenger train is composed of cars finished in varnished mahogany on the exterior. The Railroad Car Journal criticized this by saying "its effect from close by is good, but from a distance the color is of a dirty brown. It is difficult, therefore, to see what benefit is derived from the use of this costly wood, and the omission of paint is hardly likely to prove an economy."

Railroad Car Journal December 1893

1898

CPR trucks painted black.

Lethbridge News (Lethbridge, AB), 22 June 1898

Steam Locomotives

1896

Canadian Pacific locomotives are painted drop black in the following manner:

• Primed with one coat lead colour mixed half and half with turpentine.

• One coat mix of keg lead, japan black, and turpentine

• Two coats drop black

• Two coats varnish

Tender trucks painted Locomotive Black.

Interior of cab painted one coat lead colour, two coats Tuscan Red in Japan, and one coat varnish.

Roof is canvas painted with four coats Metallic brown in oil, the last coat mixed liberally with sand.

The frame and firebox are primed with one coat very dark lead colour and one coat of black engine finish.

The smokebox and firebox inside the cab are painted while hot with one coat of linseed oil mixed with a small amount of lampblack.

"Mr. Jones' Paper," Railroad Car Journal Vol.VI No.10 October 1896 p247.