Eastern Railroad Paint Information

Reference / Historic Railroad Paint Color Index / Eastern Railroad TOC

Passenger Cars

1868

Eastern drovers’ saloon cars attached to freight trains painted red.

The Daily Eastern Argus (Portland, ME), 12 March 1868

Eastern passenger cars painted “the prevailing color of cars on the road,” striped with black, white, and yellow. Lettering in green and gold, and the corners “ornamented with colors and scroll work.”

Boston Press and Post (Boston, MA), 3 August 1868

1869

Eastern passenger cars painted “a green drab,” with lettering and numbers in red, blue, and gold. “Tasty scroll work ornaments” at the cars’ ends and entrances.

The Portsmouth Journal of Literature and Politics (Portsmouth, NH), 14 August 1869

1870

Eastern passenger cars painted the “greenish-drab color used on this road,” striped in black, yellow, and fawn, touched up with red and gold. Numbers painted in red and gold on a blue ground, enclosed “in a tasty scroll.” Corners and overhead above platforms “handsomely ornamented.” Hitchcock’s patent ventilator drums painted bright red.

The Boston Traveler (Boston, MA), 7 February 1870

1871

Eastern baggage car painted a “rich red, with green, black, and white reliefs, and lettered “Seashore Line. Boston and Portland.”

The Salem Register (Salem, MA), 2 February 1871

Eastern passenger cars painted light olive green, striped in drab, black, and white.

The Salem Register (Salem, MA), 2 February 1871

Eastern smoking cars painted light olive green, striped in black, white, and cream.

The Portsmouth Journal of Literature and Politics (Portsmouth, NH), 8 April 1871

1872

Eastern postal/express car painted buff and “handsomely lettered.”

The Portland Daily Press (Portland, ME), 10 September 1872

1873

Eastern passenger cars painted straw, ornamented in green and red, with corners “illuminated in gold and colors.” Lettering done in “old English script.” Trucks painted vermilion and striped in black.

The Boston Traveler (Boston, MA), 28 February 1873

Eastern first-class passenger cars painted light straw, with letterboard and corner posts “rich red, ornamented elaborately with gold.”

Salem Register (Salem, MA), 24 March 1873

Eastern passenger cars painted straw with lake trimmings.

The Boston Evening Transcript (Boston, MA), 27 March 1873

1881

Eastern passenger car painted yellow.

The Portland Daily Press (Portland, ME), 9 February 1881

1884

Eastern passenger car bodies unpainted, varnished California red-wood, lettered in gold. Roofs painted white with black edges.

The Portland Daily Press (Portland, ME), 25 February 1884