Why was the front end of steam locomotives (smokebox) often painted silver rather than black? Something to do with heat dissipation?
Thanks in advance…
silver paint is a high temperature paint that won’t burn off due to excessive heat…that’s why they used silver paint …it could hold up to the high temperatures of the firebox and boiler flue gasses…chuck
true…
The black paint used on most of the engine wouldn’t last because of the heat. Usually the firebox and smokebox of a steam engine were coated with a mixture of graphite and oil which gave it a silvery/gray color.
[#ditto]
Just want to add, some railroads used graphite on the smoke boxes which is a dark metalic looking grey.
Theres no such thing as a dumb question. It’s only dumb if you dont ask.
Good info, many of us were wondering and now we know.
[#ditto]Yeah, I wasn’t even wondering and now I know…
Theres one bit of info missing here. Looking at a steamer the main boiler, you are not looking right at the actual boiler, you are looking at the insulation surface as most boilers are insulated with lagging with a sheet metal covering. (and the lagging would have abestos, now pretty much banned…)
So they could paint the boilers black as it would not be as hot.
Anyone who has ever seen internet forums knows that “No such thing as a stupid question” BS was strictly pre- internet. However, THIS is not a stupid question at all in my opinion. The correct answer is; that most model manufacturers paint the front of the boiler/smokebox silver is because all the other model makers do it and they have never seen a real steam locomotive. Yes, many locomotives had silver looking smokeboxes when they were freshly shopped, but that did not last long. And it did not just get sooty, it actually discolored. On steamers that had been in service any length of time at all the smokebox was usually DARK flat gray looking. As in you would have thought from looking it was just sooty flat black. Unless someone spiffed things up with some fish oil.
I have been told UP used hi temp silver paint that they discovered by actually going and looking for some hi temp paint, but I do not have any first hand knowledge.
And then you have good old N&W who painted the smokebox black and sometimes even lagged most of it in late steam years. Except for a few freshly shopped Y pics where they used some silver paint they purchased after they got the skinny on it from the UP. So anything from silver to black and everything in between may be correct.
I have personally never seen a silver smokebox or firebox that I recall.
My take is that the only dumb question was the one that wasn’t asked by the person who needed the information and didn’t have it.
The “silver” on smokeboxes (the whole smokebox, not just the front plate) and unlagged firebox areas was graphite, freshly applied and buffed to a high gloss by a boilermaker with a handful (or several) of cotton waste (aka rags) and some extra time. By the time the tender was coupled to its train that graphite would begin to dull and darken. By the time the loco was due for another shopping, it would be a dull, sooty grey bordering on black.
How often did a steam loco need shopping? With boiler washouts (frequent in bad water country,) ICC mandated inspections, piston ring and rod packing replacement, hydrostatic checks, …, far too often, but still only every week or so. (This refers to things that could be handled in the roundhouse, not jobs requiring the massive disassembly capability of a backshop.)
That’s why the advent of diesels coincided with massive reductions in locomotive maintenance manpower.
Chuck