Carson & Colorado Railroad Paint Information
Reference / Historic Railroad Paint Color Index / Carson & Colorado Railroad
Locomotives
1880-1890
Locomotives #1-8 were delivered from the Baldwin locomotive works in Olive Green & Gold style 69. They retained a form of this style until about the 1890s.
1890-1900
Locomotives #1-8 were painted black with yellow lettering.
Freight Equipment
1880-1890s
Freight cars were painted a mineral red color, the same as the parent Virginia & Truckee Railroad (which started using the color around 1880). Lettering in white, black on some iron work (corner brackets but not grab irons).
1890s-1900
In the final decade of the 19th century Carson & Colorado switched to a brighter oxide red shade. This was the final paint color applied by the C&C until the railroad was sold to the Southern Pacific in 1900.
See: Color Card: Carson & Colorado Railroad Freight Equipment 1881 - 1900 by Randy Hees and Andrew Brandon. PDF icon 1.0MB
Paint samples taken from the remains of Carson & Colorado boxcar/refrigerator car #344.
Passenger Equipment
Passenger cars delivered from Barney & Smith were painted a "dark cherry red" or wine color.
Depots
Like the parent Virginia & Truckee Railroad the C&C painted passenger depots yellow and brown with red painted shingles.
Freight depots and combination freight/passenger depots were painted Venetian Red with white or off-white trim.
Color Card: Dayton Nevada Depot by Randy Hees and Andrew Brandon. PDF icon 1.0MB
Paint samples taken from the former Carson & Colorado depot in Dayton, NV.
Notes
Shortly after the Carson & Colorado Railroad was purchased by the Southern Pacific equipment and structures were gradually painted into SP's standard paint colors. Many C&C cars remained unpainted until they were retired and replaced with equipment brought in during the Tonopah boom. There is evidence the Dayton, NV depot was painted red after the sale to SP, but box car / refrigerator car #344 had no traces of SP freight car paints, only SP structure paint applied when it became a bunkhouse in Mina.
Reference / Historic Railroad Paint Color Index / Carson & Colorado Railroad Paint Information