This is a quick blog intended to help those in the art and modeling communities. I have seen many impressions made of the colors of the South Shore Line cars over the years. Perhaps another myth of the South Shore Line is that the cars and locomotives were painted in a very deep orange. This strains credulity.
It is true that in the later years, with each new paint batch, the cars became incrementally darker. By the time the cars and locomotives were retired, they were much darker than the paint we found on South Shore Line work motor #1126 when we were researching paint colors. The paint we sampled was from inside the vestibules where there was limited sunlight and less fading. Kodachrome and Kodacolor films do shift over time, even the settings on your screens and monitors will make viewing old and new images vary. That aside, here is a sampling of images from 1942 to 1977 that give a range of colors and color schemes found on the South Shore Line.
South Shore Line car #34 at Randolph Street, Chicago, undated.
This image is from a Kodachrome slide circa 1942, taken in late afternoon light saturating the orange car sides. The car roofs are all tile red as the last car appears to be in fresh paint while the roofs on car #34 and the trailer appear to be darkened from industrial pollution. The car side and letterboard colors are consistent with the paint found in the vestibule of car #1126.
South Shore Line cars #15 and 352 at Michigan City, Indiana, 20 September 1942. This image is from a Kodacolor postcard size negative. There seems to have been no rhyme or reason as to which cars had tile red or gray roofs. Here, parlor car #352 has a gray roof. When parlor car #351 was retired in 1945, it had a tile red roof. Color shift has made adjusting this negative difficult in Photoshop CS6; it could probably use a little more black.
South Shore Line car #100 and 19 at Roosevelt Road, Chicago, undated. This Kodachrome slide is circa 1945 and taken in late afternoon light saturating the colors. Both cars have gray roofs, an inconsistent trend at the South Shore Line both before and immediately after World War II. (Photographer Credit: Dr. Howard Blackburn).
Kodachrome slide taken at Lake Street, Miller, appears to be a pre-war image. Even in the late afternoon sun, the orange on the locomotives appears to have a lot of yellow in the pigment. South Shore Line motorman Carl Edward “Ed” Hedstrom, Jr., once told me that folks at the railroad referred to the color on the locomotives and cars as yellow, not orange.
Some South Shore Line equipment did appear to be in darker paint with more red in the pigment. This Kodachrome slide was taken 21 April 1946 at the west end of Forsyth Siding.
A dozen years after the image of the caboose hop at Forsyth Siding was taken, passenger cars still appeared to be a much lighter color. Here, car #205 has paint consistent with the earlier images taken at Randolph Street and Roosevelt Road. Kodachrome slide, 11th and Franklin, Michigan City, 12 April 1958.
South Shore Line car #31 had wreck damage repaired in the late 1960s and was repainted at that time. This Kodachrome slide taken 9 September 1971 likely shows paint that has not faded to a great extent. Compare the color on car #31 with that on locomotive #802 below.
Time of day, season of the year, sky conditions, and ground conditions, all affect your ability to see. Kodachrome, May 1977, taken above Ash Avenue, Hammond, Indiana.
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