Just because

More than likely the same as  why box cars were predominantly Red and tank cars Black. You have to start someplace.

No facts but a theory....

Yellow and orange pigments in most traditional paints were heavily leaded,  especially in alkyd enamels.  Those pigments were actually quite corrosion resistant, so maybe because of the water and brine perhaps they chose the most resistant paint.

Just a theory, Bill

Cheap pigments

The mineral red, orange, and yellow pigments made for cheap paint is mainly the reason why. When you have hundreds or even a thousand or more freight cars to paint, that’s tens of thousands of gallons of paint.

If you study the history of paint you will see the brown reds, oranges, and yellows are the cheapest pigments going because they come from plentiful natural sources. 

The color difference between box cars and reefers made the different handling requirements instantly distinguishable. You had to be blind to not see the difference.

I also remember a color

I also remember a color called reefer white and had some white refrigerator cars back when I was a kid. This was a milk car. I suspect the white car would absorb less heat from the sun than the darker colors.

Colors

Yellow and orange were "fast" colors, they were indicative of speed.  Early passenger cars were often painted yellow in the 1800's, the funnels on the Titanic were painted orange.  Many early cars were painted yellow, such as the "line cars".  It made them stand out and were easier to identify.   The color said "expedite me". There were other iconic colors.  Tiffany reefers wore often painted a pale green color.  All those "grey" NYC&HR Grain Line boxcars made by MDC and Roundhouse were actually yellow.

Like others have said it's

Like others have said it's because the pigments to make `em are cheap. I figure the railroads also wanted them to be a different color than regular service boxcars to let yard crews know that these cars must handle clean ladings. Woe be unto whoever let a reefer get contaminated by being loaded with hides.

You learn something every day.

That’s an interesting observation, that reefers were bright colored to signify fast handling. Makes sense. I also thought it was because yellow and orange were eye-catching colors, but for the purpose of advertising. Hence the expression “billboard reefer”.  Any color that stood out against the usually brownish red and black freight car colors would be an eye catcher and many reefers were also white, red, light grey or multi colored.. To this day a tuscan red reefer always strikes me as rather unique, though I think it was CP that had them and probably others.

Barry P.

White Refers

Even if it's a black & white picture I'm pretty sure the Merchants Despatch refers were white.

Bernd

  You learn something every

Quote:

 

You learn something every day.

Mon, 2018-12-17 04:31 —  Grenzer47

That’s an interesting observation, that reefers were bright colored to signify fast handling. Makes sense. I also thought it was because yellow and orange were eye-catching colors, but for the purpose of advertising. Hence the expression “billboard reefer”.  Any color that stood out against the usually brownish red and black freight car colors would be an eye catcher and many reefers were also white, red, light grey or multi colored.. To this day a tuscan red reefer always strikes me as rather unique, though I think it was CP that had them and probably others.

Barry P.

The Milwaukee Road actually took the exact opposite approach on the Beer Line.  The refrigerated boxcars they used were painted brown and looked just like boxcars (except that they were noticably shorter).  They didnt want to advertise that the car was full of cases of beer so they made them blend in with everything else in the train.

-Mike

"Even if it's a black & white

  Their 40 footers were still white in the 1950's  .....DaveB

MDT stripes

There has been a fair amount of discussion in the early rail community about the red-white-blue stripes at the bottom of the MDT cars.  Were they top to bottom : R-W-B or B-W-R?

Stripe Colors

dave1905 asked?

From the gray tones, I'd say the ones in the picture are B-W-R.

Bernd