This short entry was prompted by recent discussion of the old GWR wagon red, in Mikkel's recent blog entry on the Farthing layouts for a 3-plank open in GWR red, at http://www.rmweb.co....pen-in-gwr-red/
I suspect that any attempt to distinguish between red and grey wagons in old photographs is going to be difficult, perhaps impossible, due to the similarity between the two shades when converted to grey in the photo - specially as we don't know what shade the red originally was, and it probably varied significantly.
But we can try the reverse exercise - paint some wagons in a suitable mixture of reds and greys, then create some monochrome photos of them, and compare the various shades of grey in the monochrome photo.
Here follows my modest contribution to the debate.
First a photo of 5 half-finished wagons in a mixture of red and grey - the red being an initial attempt on my part to reproduce the elusive red variously described as "light", "dark" and "warm", and used prior to some uncertain cutoff point between 1870 and 1910 (depending which authority you choose to believe) - see details at http://www.gwr.org.u...eswagonred.html
Then the same photo decolourised - i.e. reduced to a grey monochrome, similar to photos from that period.
Preliminary conclusion - the "red" wagons are a little lighter than the "grey" ones - but it would be dangerous to read too much into that difference, as I think the two grey wagons used in this example are relatively dark - other photos indicate lighter shades were also seen (faded? or different paint mixes?).
It's probably safe to say that a wagon that shows up from the period 1880-1910 as dark grey in a monochrome photo was GWR grey. It's likely that a wagon which shows up as light grey was in GWR red, faded with age. For those that show up in mid-grey, the choice is yours (as also is the choice where to draw the line between the various shades of grey in the photo).
So it looks as if you can choose your colour, red or grey, and your shade of red, and then enjoy an inconclusive discussion with the experts whether you got it "right" .
For those interested in the wagons - from left to right:
W1 cattle wagon, built ca 1890-1900 (modified from BR cattle wagon)
4 plank open, built ca 1885-1900 (similar to O5, but using single lever brakes rather than Dean-Churchward)
V6 iron mink, built ca 1885-1900
V5 mink, built ca 1902 (or possibly V4 built ca 1905 - haven't measured the width/height sufficiently accurately to be sure)
W5 cattle wagon, built ca 1902 (also modified from BR cattle wagon)
David
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