Hi,
I was wondering why most, if not all, steam locomotives were painted black? Is this because it would be easier to see water leaks and the white streaks formed by the impurities in the water? Or were they painted black because they got their paint from the same paint factory where Henry Ford got his paint from for his Model Ts?
Hansel
Not all are black. Green, Red, Blue, Yellow, Grey, Tuscan, Stainless and other colors have made their way onto lots of different locos.
Black looks good…also looks good dirty.
David B
because the engines get dirty and not cleaned so often black covers up the dirtiness better.
Lots of colour over here.
Jon
The custom of painting steam locomotives black started about the time that Henry Ford decreed that all Model Ts would be black. Ford’s reasoning was that the black paint available at that time was more durable than other pigments when exposed to the elements. Railroad management may have made the same decision for the same reason.
Nineteenth century locomotives were originally very colorful machines, As the impact of multicolor schemes and fancy striping on the bottom line finally penetrated to the boardrooms, things went rather quickly to basic black for freight locos. Those American locos with other-than-black color schemes tended to be passenger power. The Pennsy Brunswick Green scheme was an exception - sort of. (To get Brunswick Green, pour a gallon of green into a carload of black…)
My steam locos are black because that’s the color the prototype locos were painted when I was watching them in action in 1964… So was most freight stock. Older catenary motors and passenger stock was painted in the rusty grunge color scheme that was the color of the dirt they tended to accumulate.
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
To Jon… Thanks for posting. I was at the museum in York and saw the Mallard and all of the rest. Impressive!
Everybody … Would you prefer gold?
When the American Freedom Train came through Wisconsin in the 1970s it was powered by the Southern Pacific Daylight 4-8-4, #4449, painted red white and blue – mostly white. One look at that engine once it had gone through the tunnel at Tunnel City WI, working hard, and it became obvious why most steam locos were painted black – it was nearly black from its own soot (and the soot it knocked loose from the tunnel itself).
Dave Nelson
Thank god that was temporary.
John.
One reason, because it was cheap. Black was and more then likely still is the cheapest color to produce when it comes to paint. Red for example is the most expensive do in part to the cost of the pigments needed to create it. I’m not making this up came straight out of the mouth of an engineer at the Dupont plant in Delaware. Some railroads did paint their steam engines with a stripe or some other markings such as the N&W J-class or the SP day light for example but do dads like fancy paint jobs and stripes were reserved for passenger engines freight haulers were work horse with one purpose to make money by hauling freight they didn’t have to look pretty doing it.
In the case of the New York Central: If the steamers were white, you wouldn’t be able to read the road name…[:o)]
Tom
Gold! Wow that looks like a real brass loco.[8D]
I believe that steam locomotives were painted black for a similar reason that the early English Army chose red for the tunics for their soldiers. Black hides the grime and red hides the blood.
Black endured for a lot longer than the red.
Bruce
Hi!
I grew up in Chicago near the C&NW racetrack on the northwest side during the late '40s thru the '50s. I got “close and personal” with many a steam loco and grew to marvel and enjoy them to this day. It would be nice to say they were painted black so as to absorb more heat, or black was the cheapest paint for the job, or something of that ilk.
The truth is, the locos were painted black because they were the dirtiest machines ever built in quantity - especially those that burnt coal! Ha, ask any Mom that hung her laundry outside near the tracks about them, and she will give you an earful.
The RRs that gave their locos “whitewalls” or painted them green or blue or whatever other color ended up with some beautiful machines. But, an awful lot of effort had to be expended to keep them looking good - and of course that effort was usually in the form of manpower.
All of the above being said, there has never been (IMHO) a machine so impressive and massive and awe inspiring as a fired up steam loco - clean or dirty!
ENJOY,
Mobilman44
Early engines were painted various colors. Before 1859 when artificially colored paints were developed in Germany (IIRC) the cost of each color was determined by what natural plant, animal or mineral was used in creating the color. Purple and blue used ink from a sea animal so was very rare - only rich people or nobles could afford it, hence these became “royal” colors. The cheapest was red - not fire engine red, but what we’d call “boxcar red”. It was ‘dirt cheap’ because it was made with…well, dirt - or more accurately, clay or other soil that had iron ore in it. It was also a very durable paint, so people painted things like barns with it. That’s why barns are red now, people went to the store and bought “red paint” and when artificial colors came in, the generic “red paint” you’d get switched from boxcar red to a bright red.
Painting engines black (at least in the US) began before automobiles. The era of brightly painted, diamond-stacked engines really was fading by the 1870’s. Photos in Frank King’s books on the DM&IR shows some of the first DM&N and D&IR engines from the early 1880’s painted black with straight shotgun stacks for example. Partly this was probably economics…yes, bright paint was by then cheap, but there was a “panic” (what we’d call a recession or depression) in 1873 and I’m sure it’s not a coincidence that it was around that time that brightly painted and highly ornamented engines started to lose favor due to the excessive maintenance costs. It’s about this time boxcar red and Pullman green started to replace lighter colors on freight and passenger cars. (For example, straw yellow was once very common for passenger cars and boxcars, CB&Q I believe had a train called the “White Mail” that used white or cream colored cars.)
KIM steam engines not only get dirty, but they get hot too. Any paint used on them has to withstand the heat. (That’s why fireboxes and smokeboxes weren’t usually p
I always thought that box car red (iron oxide pigment) was the cheapest paint out there. For instance, the Boston & Maine was so pinch penny that they used box car red on cabooses, and only used the more expensive bright red on the ends of the caboose.
Hi!
In ancient times, reds and purples were colors only the wealthy could acquire (particularly for robes/clothes.
But in the early 20th century, barn red (or boxcar red/brown or whatever name given) was one of the cheapest pigments as it was sourced from common raw materials. Sooo, most all freight cars were painted that color, as were barns. Note we are talking of the dull red/brown color and not bright red.
Of course barns were also whitewashed, but that would not work for rail cars. And, hoppers and gondolas were often painted black to offset the grime from the stuff (coal in particular) they hauled.
Post WWII, the railroads wanted attention (another word for advertising) and thus we saw a plethora of beautiful paint schemes on the freight cars (PS 1s especially). And even Lionel picked up on that and produced all the 6464 series boxcars - which were very successful.
For what its worth…
Mobilman44
It must be a USA thing. Remember the blackouts? Regarding Henry Ford, he started out by telling his customers that they could order his automobiles in any color as long as it was black. A recent thread on this forum argued endlessly over what color black REALLY is black when it comes to painting model steam locomotives and according to the majority, there seems to be no absolutes in this world, and even without consideration of weathering, the correct answer is that black is only in the eye of the observer. (And I thought that black was simply the absence of color.) Here are a couple of photos I took of steam locomotives in Ireland and Poland. Just add a color here and a color there and the questions and arguments seem to fade away. LOL. Peter Smith, Memphis 
Not all locomotives in the USA were just plain black. In fact there were a great many exceptions. Pennsy painted their locomotives a very dark “Brunswick Green” (which looked black until you got up close), and Great Northern had their “Glacier Green” on a great many of their steamers. Even Rio Grande painted several of their locomotives a dark green up until WWII. And the Missabe road painted their Yellowstones and several other classes of freight locos with a gray boiler. UP had their two-tone “Overland Gray” used on several classes of steamers.
And a great many railroads that did paint their locomotives black used other colors also. Burlington was known for their red cab roofs and silver smoke and fireboxes. Rio Grande used everything from dark graphite to bright silver for their smoke and fireboxes, and bright silver for the cylinder heads, along with white for trim. SP used dark graphite and a bright, almost ‘white’ silver on their smokebox fronts. Even Santa Fe ‘white-faced’ some of their steamers.
And that’s not even mentioning the often striking colors that were used on ‘streamlined steam’ in the late 'thirties and 'forties, the N&W J’s and the SP GS-“Daylight” series being two of the most famous examples.
Black was cheap and it absorbed heat. And steamers ran on heat.
Tom [:)]
Remember too that in the U.S. most passenger cars for about 50 years were a very dark “Pullman” green with gold or dulux lettering. Painting an engine in bright colors would have been quite a contrast. As someone mentioned, a “black” steam engine often had a silvery/gray smokebox and firebox, a red cab roof (and possibly a red tender deck too) with white or yellow lettering, perhaps including a colored herald.
Many railroads used a green or gray boiler, sometimes ones you don’t immediately think of like Northern Pacific for example (not on all engines though). Sometimes railroads chose to try to copy the look of “Prussian (or “Russian”) Iron” boilers where the metal was sort of a blue-green.
Here’s GN predecessor St.Paul & Pacific’s first engine from 1862:
…and a later GN Mallet (note “Reversed” Goat herald on the tender):
As others have already pointed out, they weren’t always black. Toward the end of the steam era, many railroads streamlined the locomotives on their name trains and they added a variety of color schemes to these.
One unique paint scheme was created by the NYC. I forget the year but the Catholic Church was having a convention of Cardinals in Chicago. Since many of the Cardinals would be arriving in New York by ship, the NYC put together a special train to carry them to Chicago. They painted a Hudson a deep cardinal red and did the same for cars. About 20 years ago, Rivarossi issued a model of this train and I bought one. It’s a handsome consist but hasn’t seen a lot of running time. Now it will need updated with a decoder. Given its age, the flanges probably aren’t compatible with my code 83 track either so that is another issue.
If memory serves correctly, John Allen had a similar bright red loco on his G&D.