National Despatch Line (National Car Company) Paint Information

Reference / Historic Railroad Paint Color Index / National Despatch Line TOC

Freight Cars

1869 to 1880s?

Cars painted green with highly ornamented lettering.

The Burlington Free Press, 14 July 1869

The Burlington Free Press, 13 January 1870

1878

Freight car painted green and marked "Vermont Central R.R."

The Arizona Sentinel (Arizona City, AZ), 21 September 1878

1883

Freight car painted a "prodigiously conspicuous green" hailing from the "Green Mountain State."

The Daily Record Union (Sacramento, CA), 24 October 1883

Mid-1880s onward

GTR National Despatch Line cars from sometime in the mid-1880s onward were painted a mineral red/brown, like normal boxcars, with an added oblong shape, painted green and bordered in white, containing the words “NATIONAL DESPATCH” painted in white.

The Daily Morning Journal and Courier, 15 December 1896

Reference / Historic Railroad Paint Color Index / National Despatch Line