Steam Engine Design Change

Model Railroader Prototype information for the modeler
1

I’m trying to decide whether some steam engines I have would be appropriate for the era I’m trying to model and can’t find good information. I was wondering, when did general design switch from being more ornate (first picture) to more modern (second picture)?

2

I suspect the shift was spread over quite a bit of time, starting about the time of the Civil War (the Union Army Transportation Corps wasn’t about to waste time maintaining pretty paint jobs) and gradually spreading from freight locomotives in coal country (which ended up black in any event) to all locomotives with some rare exceptions. A contributing factor may have been the decline in the use of wood for cabs and end sills. It was a decision made by individual railroad managements, sometimes on a locomotive by locomotive basis.

If you are following a particular prototype, seek out its historical society - even long-fallen flags have them. Likewise, for a particular area, check with local historical societies. Towns and villages often maintain ancient photos, and it’s usually easy to see if the paintwork is plain or fancy.

Looking through the photos I have handy, it doesn’t appear that any of the locomotives that ran in the Black Hills, starting in 1881, ever had anything fancier than black paint while in service. The only photo that shows even a suggestion of minimal pinstriping is a BLW builder’s photo. I’d be willing to wager that the pinstriping on the steam dome didn’t survive the first time the throttle valve needed maintenance. As for the rest, frequent misadventures as a result of washouts rearranged a lot more than the paint jobs. I can just see the shop foreman telling the painter, “Don’t mess with all that fancy stuff. It’ll probably get wrecked the next time there’s a heavy rain.”

Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964 - with black steam, grunge colored catenary motors and diesels in grey, cream and traction orange)

3

The bigger the railroad the earlier in all probablility. As the PRR bought up smaller railroads mnay had 4-4-0 engines that were ornate. Many timesz an engineer assigned to an engine would add personal touchs like antlers on the head light or brass stanchions on the pilot. Railroads would often decorate engines for groups with bunting and signs for an engineer or conducter who was well liked and retiring. Then we get into the streamline period where the ATSF Blue Goose, Milwaukee Road Hiawatha engines and many more were painted other than black, Some think the PRR had one or more Tuscan K4 engines but no PRR documentation has ever been found that supports that. It is more of an urban legend to a degree. I would say a good rule of thumb would be limit the ornate stuff to wood burners and paint the coal or oil burners more conervatively. As a date i would say 1900 is a good build date to cut off the Victorian influence.

4

A locomotive builder that could be a “poster child” for ornate construction is the Mason Locomotive Works. Their history is found in the book Mason Steam Locomotives by Arthur W. Wallace (Heimburger House Publishing, 2004). These were the high dollar locomotives of the time, with lots of hand-crafting and woodwork. Their first 4-4-0 was produced in October of 1853. Fluted domes, brightwork, and pinstriping around the tank lettering appears to be fairly common through the 1870’s. Those produced after 1880 appear more “functional”, and they produced their final locomotive (construction # 754) in March of 1890… losing their market share to larger and more economical builders such as Baldwin.

During this same period, other builders would have been offering locomotives at less coss with less craftsmanship and decoration, but the progress of these design features within the Mason company would be a good measure of the interest in “ornate” across the country. Of course, there are examples of railroads such as the Virginia & Truckee that purchased the more ornate locomotives and then fell on economic hard times and were unable to purchase newer power, allowing a few of the older-style locomotives to remain in service (and the dry climate of the V&T didn’t hurt that preservation, either).

Bill

5

Pool service of locomotives was the death Nell of the ornate locomotive. Before pooling every loco was assigned to an engine crew who took care of it as they saw fit. Engineers knew what loco they would operate when they reported to work. When they went on vacation or were out of work the assigned loco was stored or in shop until they were rejoined in service. When a loco was in shop for an extended time the crew was also out of work. No work = no pay. The railroad management knew that each assigned crew could take care of their loco. It was the unions that suggested pool service to keep their men working. Locomotives were tools to be used and the railroads knew that very well. They could not escape the utilitarian nature of the freight locomotive to the popularity of the public’s perception of a nice looking passenger train. Passenger locos were definitely treated differently from drawings to final assignments. Ornate became the norm in passenger service while the freight locomotive became the tools the management could rely on to get the job done.

The railroads also spent countless dollars on historical excursion trains. The PRR ran a replica of the John Bull into the 1940s. They also kept other 1800 era locos ready for showing at various gatherings like the world fairs.

Pete

6

There’s a neat old book called “Iron Horses, American Locomotives 1829-1900” by E. P. Alexander. It’s got pictures of locomotives in chronological order.

It appears that locomotive decoration in the US didn’t start until about 1850. The first locomotive in the US was in 1829. So that’s about 20 years. Decoration appeared to start disappearing around the Civll War, though maybe not until after (only 96 samples in book for the whole period). Starting maybe 1870 or so, decoration declined and was pretty much gone by 1890.

The above is pretty much a statistical thing, though. There were many railroads with many locomotives, and each of them had as much decoration as the person writing the check desired. The Pennsylvania Railroad seemed to be an early adopter of non-decoration, for example. I’m not sure if ANY of their locos ever had any.

An interesting question.

Ed

7

Thanks for the info, everyone. I know more ornate engines stayed in service for a while, it was just a question of when more functional ones came around. Thanks for the suggestion about historical societies, too. It looks like both the MILW and CNW, the closest railroads geographically to my planned freelance, had shifted over by the mid to late 1880s. That means the engines I have are at least plausible within a half decade of when I want to model. Mostly going off of these pages:

http://www.cnwhs.org/memberphotos/displayimage.php?album=5&pos=39

http://www.oldmilwaukeeroad.com/content/progress/page04.htm

And I think I’m going to have to pick up that book- it looks interesting, and I could use another railroad history book.

8

He did a sequel: “American Locomotives 1900-1950”. Usually there’s a picture on the right hand page and some data and chit-chat on the left. There’s odd/obscure and also the more everyday. Definitely neat books. And I also recommend Alfred Bruce’s “The Steam Locomotive in America”–a very readable and detailed book about the design and development of the steam locomotive.

Ed

9

Actually US Military RR engines were (by modern standards) pretty ornately decorated…I think the 2012 Model Railroad Planning publication has some good examples. In general, elaborate decoration lasted into the 1870’s but by the 1880’s was much less common. Artificial paint colors were developed just before the Civil War, so you could buy any color you wanted for the same price, so multi-colored engines, cars, houses etc. became fairly common. But by the '80’s steam engine became more common in ‘basic black’.

BTW the two engines in the OP are about 40 years apart technologically. The upper one has a balloon stack / spark arrestor common to wood burning engines. Around 1880 coal became more common and straight stacks like the lower one became common. The upper one has a large oil or kerosene burning headlight, where the lower has an electric headlight. There are other changes, like from a large wood pilot to a smaller metal one (probably made from boiler tubes and the upper having a wood cab and the lower appears to have a steel one.

Keep in mind the lower one might have looked like the upper one when it was delivered, and been changed over time.

10

I came across some more turn of the 19th century locos for Mr. Wikious on a little get away.

A Baldwin 4-4-0 built in 1881 for the Central Railroad and Banking Co. of Florida.

http://cs.trains.com/TRCCS/themes/trc/utility/[IMGhttp://i260.photobucket.com/albums/ii34/Yankeeflyer/065.jpg[/IMG]:550:0]

And a 2-6-0 built in 1907 by Baldwin Co. for a central Florida railroad that wanted to lay track across central Florida cost to cost.

http://cs.trains.com/TRCCS/themes/trc/utility/[IMGhttp://i260.photobucket.com/albums/ii34/Yankeeflyer/042-1.jpg[/IMG]:550:0]

http://cs.trains.com/TRCCS/themes/trc/utility/[IMGhttp://i260.photobucket.com/albums/ii34/Yankeeflyer/026.jpg[/IMG]:550:0]

Enjoy [swg]

Lee

11

The Victorian designs started to fade at about the late 19th century, and the “modern” designs for steam engines started to come about before and during WW1. In the depression, streamlining started to become popular, so you found engines decorated for certain passenger trains.

For example, you have the Broadway Limited with it’s streamlined K4’s and the well known T1 Duplex on the PRR, and the Dreyfuss and Mercury Hudsons on the NYC.

As far as diesels are concerned, it is kind of a mix. You have the road switchers and the cab F units, which retained their styling until the late 50’s. You started to see the modern diesel cab as the 60’s came on with the C420 and the SD45. When General Electric became popular in the 80’s, you also started to see their well known wide-nose units.

Hope this information helps.

12

The locomotives themselves often changed appearance quite substantially. For example, the picture of CPR 136 in your initial posting is of its appearance after a major rebuild. A new larger boiler replaced the original and the valve gear changed, just to mention some of the more significant changes. So while the locomotive may have been built by Rogers in 1883, what you see in the picture is typical of the WW1 era.

The early locomotives often had a fairly short life span. The technology was still young with rapid obsolescence. Once elaborate ornamentation fell out of fashion it would have vanished in a short time.

13

Of course you never have told us what era you are modeling.

14

He sort of told us, but only indirectly, and open to quite a bit of interpretation.

He wrote " had shifted over by the mid to late 1880s. That means the engines I have are at least plausible within a half decade of when I want to model."

Which might be interpreted as saying his desired era is around 1895 or so. Or maybe not - hard to say.

Grin,
Stein

15

Well, I haven’t quite nailed down when I’d like to model. I have a pair of engines that are similar to the second one I posted, and a 4-4-0 that’s pretty ornamental. I was hoping to find a time when both engines, with possible modification, would have been on the rails together. The only thing I know for sure I want is to be pre-automobile, so that would place it early 1900s and before. I had originally been planning 1880s but I had doubts on if that was feasible; hence, the idea I might have to shift towards the 20th century.

Thanks for the new pictures. It looks like I’ll probably have to modify the “newer” engines I have a little bit, but that shouldn’t be a problem- they need new paint as it is.

16

According to data in this picture:

http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=2566240

the lower of the two locomotives you show was built in 1883. So, if your models look like that one, modeling in the 1890’s or 1900’s is pretty reasonable. The loco in your upper photo is lettered for the Atlantic, Mississippi and Ohio. It was formed in 1870 (see Wikipedia). So that loco was likely built right around then. That’s only 13 years before the other one.

I thus don’t really see a problem of running both of them at the same time. If you’re choosing to run all your models lettered for the same railroad, you might want to do some mods on some or all of them. What those modifications might be is an interesting question, one that you might spend hours of enjoyable time considering and researching.

Note that the fancy one, being older, would likely be relegated to lesser service, compared to the other(s). And so some of the spit-and-polish shown in the photo would likely be dimmed. Or removed. Maybe.

The photo of CP 136 that I site is dated 1959. A couple of 4-4-0’s from the 1880’s still running. Too cool!

Ed