Boston & Albany Paint Information
Reference / Historic Railroad Paint Color Index
Freight Cars
1872
Grain cars painted "flame-colored yellow or orange" with black lettering and ironwork.
The National Car Builder, May 1872, pg. 7
Passenger Equipment
1872
Drawing-room car "Massasoit" was painted an olive brown with gold leaf scrollwork and lettering surrounded by gold leaf tracery.
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The Springfield Daily Republican (Springfield, MA), 3 June 1872
1873
Wagner drawing-room car "Shawmut" painted "rich olive" and striped in gold leaf. "Wagner's Drawing Room Car" and "Boston and Rochester Through Line" painted in black on both ends of the car, and the name of the car painted in a gold leaf-trimmed oval on the car's sides.
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The Springfield Daily Republican (Springfield, MA), 7 May 1873
1880
Passenger cars begin to be painted olive color, instead of the yellow used by the company prior to 1880.
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The Daily Picayune (New Orleans, LA), 26 October 1886
Director's car painted olive "with little ornamentation" except for a single gold stripe around each panel.
The National Car Builder, July 1880, pg. 123
Passenger cars painted "dark olive brown color."
The Railroad Gazette, 3 December 1880, pg. 647
Passenger cars assigned to the "New York and Boston Express Line" painted olive with crimson and gold embellishments, with the names of each car painted on the side in a black field.
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The Boston Globe (Boston, MA), 6 December 1880
1882
Passenger cars painted "olive shade."
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Hartford Courant (Hartford, CT), 26 June 1882
Smoking, baggage, passenger, and drawing room cars built new at the Alston shops painted a "pleasant shade of green."
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The Springfield Daily Republican (Springfield, MA), 24 June 1882
Passenger cars assigned to the “New York and Boston Express Line” painted olive, with markings in “plain but handsome letters.”
The National Car Builder, August 1882, pg. 85
1888
Sleeping cars painted "standard dark brown" with gold leaf ornamentation.
The Railroad Gazette, 13 July 1888, pg. 457
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The Boston Evening Transcript (Boston, MA), 17 July 1888
1890
Combination cars painted standard dark brown with no gold leaf ornamentation.
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The Boston Herald (Boston, MA), 12 March 1890
1895
Passenger cars assigned to the "New York and Boston Express Line" painted light olive and decorated with gold leaf following a Pullman standard pattern.
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The Boston Evening Transcript (Boston, MA), 27 September 1895
Structures
1915
The coaling pier at Boston is painted with National Paint Works No.16 Carbon Black over No.300 Suspended Red Lead as primer.
Bridges are painted with National Paint Works No.16 Carbon Black.
[Cheeseman, Frank P. The Review of Technical Paint. New York: Cheeseman & Elliot, 1915.]