Tuscan red is a shade of red that was used on some

railroad car A railroad car, railcar (American and Canadian English), railway wagon, railway carriage, railway truck, railwagon, railcarriage or railtruck (British English and UIC), also called a train car, train wagon, train carriage or train truck, is a ...

s, particularly

passenger cars A car or automobile is a motor vehicle with wheels. Most definitions of ''cars'' say that they run primarily on roads, seat one to eight people, have four wheels, and mainly transport people instead of goods. The year 1886 is regarded as t ...

. The color is most closely associated with the

Pennsylvania Railroad The Pennsylvania Railroad (reporting mark PRR), legal name The Pennsylvania Railroad Company also known as the "Pennsy", was an American Class I railroad that was established in 1846 and headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was named ...

, which used it on passenger cars and on its TrucTrain flatcars. It also was used extensively by the

New South Wales Government Railways The New South Wales Government Railways (NSWGR) was the agency of the Government of New South Wales that administered rail transport in New South Wales, Australia, between 1855 and 1932. Management The agency was managed by a range of differe ...

in Australia, in a similar fashion to the PRR. The

Norfolk and Western Railway The Norfolk and Western Railway , commonly called the N&W, was a US class I railroad, formed by more than 200 railroad mergers between 1838 and 1982. It was headquartered in Roanoke, Virginia, for most of its existence. Its motto was "Precisio ...

used it as an accent color on its J class steam locomotives. The

Canadian Pacific Railway The Canadian Pacific Railway (french: Chemin de fer Canadien Pacifique) , also known simply as CPR or Canadian Pacific and formerly as CP Rail (1968–1996), is a Canadian Class I railway incorporated in 1881. The railway is owned by Canadi ...

used it historically and painted its luxury revival cars in this color. It is also a

Prismacolor Prismacolor is a brand of professional visual arts supplies originated in 1938 by the Eagle Pencil Company (then taken over by Berol), and currently manufactured by Newell Brands. Prismacolor products include, colored and graphite pencils, soft ...

colored pencil.

History

The first recorded use of ''Tuscan red'' as a color name in

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

was in the early 1800s (exact date uncertain). The color was popular in the late 19th century but non-standardized. It became the ‘signature color’ of the Pennsylvania Railroad, which instituted specifications for its formulation. Before the 1880s, pigments extracted from

Brazil wood ''Paubrasilia echinata'' is a species of flowering plant in the legume family, Fabaceae, that is endemic to the Atlantic Forest of Brazil. It is a Brazilian timber tree commonly known as Pernambuco wood or brazilwood ( pt, pau-de-pernambuco, ; ...

were used in its manufacture, but these proved inadequate in terms of hiding power and stability. A 1917 US

National Bureau of Standards The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is an agency of the United States Department of Commerce whose mission is to promote American innovation and industrial competitiveness. NIST's activities are organized into physical sci ...

circular describes it as based on

Indian red Indian red is a pigment, a variety of ocher, which gets its colour from ferric oxide, produced in India. Other shades of iron oxides include Venetian Red, English Red, and Kobe, all shown below. Chestnut is a colour similar to but separat ...

, which derives its color from

iron oxide Iron oxides are chemical compounds composed of iron and oxygen. Several iron oxides are recognized. All are black magnetic solids. Often they are non-stoichiometric. Oxyhydroxides are a related class of compounds, perhaps the best known of whic ...

s. The color was then modified by treatment with an

alizarin Alizarin (also known as 1,2-dihydroxyanthraquinone, Mordant Red 11, C.I. 58000, and Turkey Red) is an organic compound with formula that has been used throughout history as a prominent red dye, principally for dyeing textile fabrics. Histori ...

lake pigment A lake pigment is a pigment made by precipitating a dye with an inert binder, or mordant, usually a metallic salt. Unlike vermilion, ultramarine, and other pigments made from ground minerals, lake pigments are organic.K. Hunger. W. Herbst "Pigm ...

. The pigment's stability lent itself to hard use in applications such as rail cars, steam pipes, radiators, and machinery. Lower-cost imitations were made without iron oxides by using

gypsum Gypsum is a soft sulfate mineral composed of calcium sulfate dihydrate, with the chemical formula . It is widely mined and is used as a fertilizer and as the main constituent in many forms of plaster, blackboard or sidewalk chalk, and drywall. ...

or whiting as a base and adding

aniline Aniline is an organic compound with the formula C6 H5 NH2. Consisting of a phenyl group attached to an amino group, aniline is the simplest aromatic amine In organic chemistry, an aromatic amine is an organic compound consisting of an aroma ...

dyes.

Variations

The traditional color Tuscan red is shown above. The lighter tones of Tuscan red tend toward tan and beige. The darker tones of Tuscan red tend toward purplish tones. These purplish tones of Tuscan red are exemplified by the color ''deep Tuscan red'', shown below.

Tuscan

Displayed at right is the color Tuscan. The first recorded use of ''Tuscan'' as a color name in

was in 1887.

Tuscany

The color Tuscany is displayed at right. The first recorded use of ''Tuscany'' as a color name in English was in 1922. The source of this color is the "

Pantone Pantone LLC (stylized as PANTONE) is a limited liability company headquartered in Carlstadt, New Jersey. The company is best known for its Pantone Matching System (PMS), a proprietary color space used in a variety of industries, notably graphic ...

Textile Paper eXtended (TPX)" color list, color #16-1219 TPX—Tuscany.

Tuscan tan

Displayed at right is the color Tuscan tan. The first recorded use of ''Tuscan tan'' as a color name in English was in 1926. The normalized color coordinates for Tuscan tan are identical to

café au lait ''Café au lait'' (; ; French for "coffee with milk") is coffee with hot milk added. It differs from white coffee, which is coffee with cold milk or other whiteners added. Variations Europe In Europe, ''café au lait'' stems from the same ...

and French beige, which were first recorded as color names in English in 1839 and 1927, respectively.

Tuscan brown

Displayed at right is the color Tuscan brown. The first recorded use of ''Tuscan brown'' as a color name in English was in 1913. The normalized color coordinates for Tuscan brown are identical to

coffee Coffee is a drink prepared from roasted coffee beans. Darkly colored, bitter, and slightly acidic, coffee has a stimulant, stimulating effect on humans, primarily due to its caffeine content. It is the most popular hot drink in the world. S ...

, which was first recorded as a color name in English in 1695.Maerz and Paul ''A Dictionary of Color'' New York:1930 McGraw-Hill p. 193; Color Sample of Coffee: p. 53—Plate 15 Color Sample A11

Medium Tuscan red

Medium Tuscan red is that tone of Tuscan red that is called ''Tuscan red'' in the ISCC-NBS color list.

References

{{Shades of red Shades of red Shades of brown Canadian Pacific Railway Norfolk and Western Railway Pennsylvania Railroad