NYCRR Passenger exterior paints for modelling

Growing up 1/2 mile from NYCRR tracks in a small northeast Ohio city where NYCRR had a freight yard and passenger station, I've always been in love with NYCRR. Had I known then that my love for NYCRR would bloom in my adult years, I would have taken photographs of those passenger trains I loved to see rolling through the landscapes of my youth. I only travelled on NYCRR once....for about 500 feet. A friend and I went to the passenger station and boarded a train during an intermediate stop, without tickets. We walked through the cars until we realized the train was moving westward toward Cleveland. We looked at each other with our eyes bugging and ran to the vestibule of a coach. Thankfully, the steps were still down and door open with no conductor in sight. Jumping from the train, we hit the ballast, got up and ran home with great abandon.

I'm in the process of modelling the 1938 and 1948 versions of the 20th Century Limited trains in HO scale. These will be for a long wall display in my den, complete with ballast, rusted rails and shubbery. I am scratch-building the interiors for the 1938 version and are cars from Con-Cor. For the 1948 version, I'm using the newly-released Walther's cars. Both trains will be lit in their interiors and will include full width diaprhagms from The Coach Yard.

I have the a few of the Con-Cor 1938 cars in the Century scheme and am not too keen on the exterior colors...I think they're way too light. I've sanded the old paint off and am researching shades of grey to repaint in more accurate colors.

Can anyone provide me with paint colors that more closely match the 1938 prototype?

I'm using Polly S/Floquil and am very impressed with this brand. I've used them exclusively for my interiors and find that mixing paint shades to create custom colors works extremely well.

Once these trains are completed, I'll start work on regular passenger service NYCRR trains to add to my display, similar to my 'trip' when I was a 12-year old. All-in-all, I'll have four (4) trains...both versions of the Century, regular service (mixed smoothside and corrugated Budds/ACF) and a freight train.

Any assistance with my project is most appreciated.

Thank you very much,

JC White
Tampa, FL

Scalecoat matched their NYC grays to actual paint chips. I have compared them and they are quite close.
While the paint numbers and formulations changed over the years, the colors remained the same. That means you can use the same two gray colors for your models for all eras.
You will notice that the colors are very dark. You will want to lighten them slightly for them to appear correct on HO models. There is no formula for doing this - let your eye be the judge.
[And yes, you are correct, the Con-Cor colors are much too light for the 1938 Century]
No experience with Polly S, but the original Floquil dark gray was a slightly weathered dark gray. The light gray was not as close a match and had a greenish cast to it. Floquil SP Lark dark gray was a closer match to the NYC light gray paint chip. Even if you don't use Floquil or Scalecoat, these colors can serve as good references.
I don't have a good recommendation for the blue color in the striping on the 1938 version.
Hopefully you can find appropriate decals for the aluminum gray striping and lettering.
--Mike