Garden Railway Forum

Hi all,

Trying to get a grips with a typical 1930's interior colour. Supposedly, the WHR carriages were painted in a variety of colours using household paint. This included two summer carriages in blue and pink(!)

What sort of shades would you expect? I always imagined the pink so be a subdued pale pink and the blue to be a similar baby blue colour? Would that be typical of the time?

Cheers

JMORG wrote: ↑Wed Aug 25, 2021 2:40 pm
What sort of shades would you expect? I always imagined the pink so be a subdued pale pink and the blue to be a similar baby blue colour? Would that be typical of the time?

I can't quite go back that far ( feels like it though!), but I do remember internal room walls painted in a slightly greenish shade of blue 'distemper' in the early 50's. I'd imagine that the pink might be a let down mixture of white and red lead, possibly?
Either way I'd expect them to be fairly strong colours rather than pastel shades. I could be wrong though.

JMORG wrote: ↑Wed Aug 25, 2021 2:40 pm Hi all,

Trying to get a grips with a typical 1930's interior colour. Supposedly, the WHR carriages were painted in a variety of colours using household paint. This included two summer carriages in blue and pink(!)

What sort of shades would you expect? I always imagined the pink so be a subdued pale pink and the blue to be a similar baby blue colour? Would that be typical of the time?

Cheers

I think the depth of colour, and hue would dependant on if they still had Edwardian influence, or were Art Deco influenced, research of these could provide some guidance.

JMORG wrote: ↑Wed Aug 25, 2021 2:40 pm Trying to get a grips with a typical 1930's interior colour. Supposedly, the WHR carriages were painted in a variety of colours using household paint. This included two summer carriages in blue and pink(!)

What sort of shades would you expect? I always imagined the pink so be a subdued pale pink and the blue to be a similar baby blue colour? Would that be typical of the time?

Here in Oz and NZ there was a move towards 'heritage' colour schemes for buildings in the late 1980's and I've hung on to the Heritage colour charts from that time as colour references for modelling.

I don't know if the same interest in heritage house colours happened in the UK, but the paint colours wouldn't be much different. There weren't that many pigments available for paint use before WW2.........

The link below is to the Resene website and there are links on the page to their heritage colour chart archive. Resene are a NZ company, but the colours shown are the same as we used in Oz, so it should be a reasonable starting point for UK equivalents. A web search for heritage paint charts from UK paint companies should turn up something suitable.

https://www.resene.com.au/homeown/use_colr/heritage.htm
https://www.resene.com.au/pdf/charts/He ... alette.pdf

The use of some interior colours goes back a long way, their are old favorites still available in paint shops today that were being used in Oz in the colonial period (1800-1837).

Remember also that interior paints can fade faster when used outside, even in what passes for sunshine in the UK. Written descriptions of the time may be describing a different colour to what was actually applied.

Regards,
Graeme

Ooh, this sounds fun!

I think Graeme's right about the paint fading - I think I recall reading it was purchased from a shop on Porthmadog High Street, and did indeed fade because it was interior paint. I guess that explains descriptions of pastel colours.

I shelved my plans for a "rainbow rake" when I realised I'd take at least six months to build every carriage, but my plan was to apply a pastel colour, then a wash of a darker shade, wiping that off so there were just traces left in nooks and crannies to represent bits that hadn't faded. I haven't tried it, it might look rubbish!

You'll need a green Russell, blue Welsh Pony or red Baldwin to go with the carriages next...

Andrew