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Re: [BRHSlist] Chineese Red?

To: <BRHSlist@yahoogroups.com>
Subject: Re: [BRHSlist] Chineese Red?
From: "M. Thayer" <zephyr@k...>
Date: Sat, 3 Mar 2001 14:52:05 -0600
References: <F201tytQEVFwmiXOlJU00003bef@h...>
Reply-to: "M. Thayer" <mthayer@k...>
----- Original Message -----
From: "Rick Keil" <rkeil6721@h...>
To: <BRHSlist@yahoogroups.com>; <BRHSlist@egroups.com>
Sent: Saturday, March 03, 2001 1:43 PM
Subject: [BRHSlist] Chineese Red?


> Two part question: Why is it called Chineese Red?

Chinese Red (as the name of a decorator color) was derived from the
distinctive shade used on laquered Chinese wooden boxes, etc. It was
considered slightly brighter (a bit more whiteness) than standard "signal"
red, as used on Santa Fe warbonnets and CB&Q graybacks.

> Why did the Q change
> from the Blackbird scheme to the Chineese Red scheme.

Without having any specific information at hand, but working off of a
synergistic historian's knowledge of the period, I would say it was a result
of the general "Madison Avenue" mood of the times. At the time (1958-59),
the concept of "Image" was hot . . . The idea of using freight cars to
insert Image into a railroad's daily operations was not exactly new then,
but was becoming extremely popular. There were a few oddities which
predated the 50's image drive - C&IM's yellow box cars and TP&W's green
cabooses (with letters instead of numbers) come to mind - but the concept
began rolling in the late pre-war era. First it was "billboard" slogans on
boxcars (with the CB&Q's slogan presentations on the XM-32s as an example) -
but you also had color creeping in - like Cotton Belt's "Blue Streak" - then
UP put express box cars in both Challenger Gray and Streamliner Yellow . . .

After the war, dedicated merchandise services such as NYC's "Pacemaker" and
B&O's "Sentinel" really made non-boxcar-red freightcars noticeable. The UP
then went to yellow boxcars and stock cars for new manufacture and/or
dedicated service, and it began rolling.

CB&Q was a bit late into the "fad", actually - the color barrier was
emphatically fractured with the McGinnis color schemes of the NH and B&M . .
. .

I'll let someone else come in with any specific documentation on how the
CB&Q made the final determination, but it was part of an established trend.

Marshall Thayer


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