I'm going to just post in here since the thread title is clearer than the Rapido car thread.
Yep, the were pullman green (if memory serves me well) up until the post-WW2 era. After WW2, the C&O decided that it was time to modernize their fleet (as everyone did) and ordered an enormous number of cars in their familiar post-war scheme. The Spectrum heavyweights are all painted to match post-war equipment as many railroads repainted (or in the case of the B&O, rebuilt) their older equipment to match their newer varnish. My beloved NKP received modern cars were built to pretty much the same designs. (they're equipment was typically designed by the AMC...Advisory Mechanical Committee of the Pere Marquette, C&O, NKP, and Erie...a product of their former common ownership)
The premier train for the C&O was intended to be the Chessie with unique cars and locomotives. The Steam Turbines (as in Big Steel's avatar) were intended for the main train while 5 F-19 pacifics were rebuilt into ubermodern and huge 4-6-4s (with poppet valves and streamlining for 4 of the 5) were built for connections. I can't recall how many of their matching orange and fluted stainless cars were delivered (I'm confusing it with the aborted AT&SF Blue Goose's unique cars). Eventually the streamlined hudsons received yellow in place of their orange to match the rest of the C&O varnish.
I'm attempting to remember their passenger power...
Hudsons (and pacifics before that) for Ohio/Kentucky...4-8-4s for West Virginia (I prefer the appearance of the earlier 4-8-4s for the George Washington)...and 4-8-2s for Virginia (I can't recall if they were replaced by superpower or not).
The largest hudsons ever built were the C&O's L-2s...but they predated the L-1s. The L-1 designation was owned by a shop goat while the L-2s were being constructed...so they received the designation L-2, but by the time of the F-19->L-1 conversion...the designation had opened up.
I know they used to have pullman green cars but when did they phase them out? And when were the yellow and blue ones introduced? Thanks!:mrgreen: Its hard finding info on this anywhere.