I believe they were yellow-ish.... not 100% sure though.
There's a picture of a recovered one here:
http://www.titaniccollector.com/recovered/2_5.html
It was picked up fairly soon after the accident so not discolored by being under water..
I don't think it was ever red or orange, cause if it's in a museum, they would have preserved it so that it wouldnt lose it's color.. well, not much of it anyway.. that's my theory though.
It might have gotten lighter in color over the years, but I do think it was that brown-yellowish color.. as seen on a lot of older ones, I guess they only started using brighter colors lateron. But I can be wrong.
Also If you look at the photo (the link there) you can see that it is a light color in the B&W picture, too light to be orange or red I think.
Regards,
Fred