New Ashford, Massachusetts 01237
Every time a group of old Cat skinners get together, the color
of old Caterpillar tractors becomes a topic of serious discussion.
I have also received several letters inquiring about the color of
early Holt and Best tractors. Contrary to the belief of the young
fellows, Caterpillars were not always painted what is now known as
‘Caterpillar Yellow.’ In my short sketch of Caterpillar
history I stated Caterpillar went to the now-famous yellow in 1933.
Caterpillar of Peoria reviewed this and stated it was about this
time although there was some plus or minus variation of this date,
also from my own experience and memory, this is about right.
First, all the old Holt Caterpillars were painted grey. I would
like to back track here and bring in the fact that Holt registered
Caterpillar as their trade name in 1910. No other tractor
manufacturer can use this name. Through common usage it is applied
to all crawler-type tractors but never as part of the official
name. Greys were used by numerous early tractor manufacturers and
Holt called their grey ‘Battleship Grey.’ Everyone has
their own idea of Battleship Grey and my idea is a medium grey with
more blue than black being used in the original mix to obtain this
color. They also had the wavy track of a Caterpillar in a dark red
band about an inch and a half wide on the hood side panels
extending the full length of the panel and Holt or Caterpillar in
cast-raised letters on radiator. This varied. Some had Holt on each
side panel of the radiator and Holt on the front of the radiator;
some had Holt on the sides and a wavy Caterpillar on the front.
Some had only one or other on the front and lettered model number
on side panels. These letters were always painted a dark red.
Now here is how yellow came in one might say through the back
door again from experience. In the 1920s new parts that required
painting came through with a prime coat of medium yellow or light
grey. Also one could see some grey tractors were primed with yellow
and some with grey. Numerous towns, counties and states bought
tractors for use on snowplows and requested they come through with
a prime coat only and they applied their official color. I have
seen them with several different colors on the working model,
apparently some liked the original yellow prime and applied a
finished yellow.
I have seen yellow Caterpillars as early as 1928. The state of
Massachusetts paints all their equipment orange so orange was
common here as early as 1924.
Now when Holt and Best merged in 1925 the grey was continued
with some variation. The Best 30 and 60 were continued with all
Best name-plates removed and Caterpillar substituted and painted a
light grey. Early Bests were painted a very dark grey with white
lettering and the last were a lighter grey some with black and some
with white lettering. It appears the newly-formed Caterpillar
Tractor Company continued this except the Caterpillar name-plates
were painted red or black. They also used the lighter grey on the
new model 15s and 20s up to about 1931.
About this time numerous yellow ones appeared and some time
thereafter the official Caterpillar yellow appeared with black
lettering. As I recall all the diesel models came through painted
yellow and so to this day I recall seeing a couple of D75s in the
mid-30s painted a nice dark red with gold and black lettering and I
was told they came through that way. They may have been a trial
run. I do know they were not the color the construction company
painted all the rest of their equipment. At the time we thought the
75s were the ultimate in power, operating efficiency and class, now
they are entering the antique category.
If any of the above needs clarification or I can be of help to
anyone restoring old Caterpillar tractors, do not hesitate to
write. My collection includes a Holt 2-ton, a 5-ton, a Cat Thirty
really Best 30 and a 3 cylinder D40. Someday I hope to find a Holt
10-ton and a Cat 60 to round out the early series.
