Taff Vale Goods Wagon Livery

[Newport_rod]

For a while I have been building a model of a TVR Goods Brake Van and I'm getting towards the point where I shall be able to paint it.

Selecting an exact shade is always a bit of a lottery and I turned first to the instructions from Taff Vale Models themselves. They say:

Taff Vale brown oxide could be nicely represented by Humbrol 62 Leather, but the ends, described as Venetian Red are more problematic, In that the red pigment would almost certainly fade to more of a pink colour, depending on how long the van had been in service. Humbrol Matt Red is probably a good choice, perhaps with a little white added to indicate the length of service. The underframe was black.

Humbrol 62 Leather is described elsewhere as RAL8023 (Orange Brown)

To me - purely subjectively of course - that seems too light and orangey a shade so I looked at two alternative sources on my bookshelf

1 - HMRS Great Western Way

A 1908 specification for 10 ton open trucks with steel underframes called for the outside part of the underframe be finished with two coats of brown Oxide.

2 - The Liveries of the Pre-Grouping Railways Volume 1: Wales and the West of England, Digby
BROWN OXIDE. CARTER 30; PANTONE 4695; BS 381 490; "BEECH BROWN’

(For info PANTONE 4695 hexadecimal color code #5b3427 is a medium dark shade of red-orange. In the RGB color model. #5b3427 is comprised of 36% red, 20% green and 15% blue and BS 381 490; "BEECH BROWN Equates to #573320 and consists of 34% red, 20% green and 13% blue)

The HMRS source (coming from a spec) can be taken as authoritative, but leaves us wondering what shade ‘brown Oxide’ really is. Online searches come up with something like RAL 8015 Chestnut brown ( Hex #5E2F26 consists of 37% red, 18 % green and 15% blue)

The colour codes and swatch in Digby’s book are very helpful but to my (admittedly old and male) eyes look too dark compared with works or in-service pics.

So what have I decided to do? RAL 8015 Chestnut brown looks pretty close to the right shade and it’s readily available so that’s what I’ll go for unless someone has a better idea. Suggestions please.

[Wagonworks_andy]

There many opinions about Taff Vale goods wagon livery and what was brown oxide.
The colour would of altered with age, exposure to light and pollution.
There would have been much more variation batch to batch in the paint used.
Also with models, what light is displayed in can make it look very different.

I think the colour in "The Liveries of the Pre-Grouping Railways Volume 1: Wales and the West of England, Digby" is too dark.
I have used the Humbrol 62 and then weathered it with a little matt black.
This was the colour used by the late Peter Korrison, and by Chris Baston.