Omer Lavallee, CPR historian, once discussed the origin of CPR "maroon" in a
private conversation. Omer apparently stated that when CP was acquiring its
first steel passenger cars circa 1912 they needed to decide on a colour for
them. CP wood passenger cars were varnished mahagony at that time and this
finish would not be appropriate for steel cars. Apparently at that time some
CPR Montreal officials, while visiting the shops of its subidiary Soo Line,
were impressed with the maroon colour the Soo had adopted. The officials
decided to use the Soo colour on the new CPR steel cars.
A study of colour photos of CPR cars and diesel locos shows a very wide range
of shades of "maroon". Often cars in the same train vary in shade. Representing
CPR "maroon" on models under indoor artificial light is problematic. It seems
that the available model paints labelled "CPR Maroon" are too dark to
realistically represent the colour on small models viewed under relatively dim
indoor artificial light. Perhaps the model paints were derived from actual CP
paint samples. It seems that they generally need to be lightened.
John Riddell
