I have seen an yellow, grey, and red Big Boy with Union Pacific in large letters on the tender(Ho model)
The 1800’s period of colorful locomotives were about engineer pride and many engines were not numbered but named and the crew took better care of the engines, something they were proud of.
But grease, grime, oil, soot, everything smothered up these engines on a regular basis. So also the engineer pride also waived, and maybe because engines got bigger and harder to clean every little spec of dust, they remained dirty. Black was the only color that could disguise all the wretchedness that covers a steamer. And yet we go out of our way to “weather” our great model lokies!
However most passenger equipment and passenger steamers were kept clean and attractive and there have been many a colorful passenger steamer to the end of steam.
Black is the old black. [;)]
WHERE? Me wanna see.
Because black is beautiful.
They may be “museum pieces” today, but they accurately reflect the color schemes of the day. Back then, railroads were “new technology” and locomotives were a significant capital investment. Railroads took pride in their trains and crews took pride in their locomotives.
-George
George,I suggest you study pictures of Steam locomotives.
Clean…Not as a rule.After all they was nothing more then a machine used to haul freight.
Now Union rules forbid the engine crew to be cleaners…That was another job class in the round house force.
I didn’t have a camera, but think of of the Big Boy. Now Replace the black. nOw add lettering.
And ta-da! there you have it!
According to the story I heard credit for this phenomena falls on the shoulders of one Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt and his New York Central and Hudson River Railroad.
Up until - and immediately after - the American Civil War locomotives tended to be very colorful affairs. Commodore Vanderbilt came under fire in the press with charges that he was adorning his locomotive with gold trim - not golden painted trim, mind you, but pure, unadulterated gold trim. In a fit of indignant rage and in order to forestall these criticisms The Commodore, as he was called, ordered that all of the railroads under his control would immediately paint their locomotives in a solid black livery.
The New York Central and Hudson River Railroad was ‘The Standard Railroad of the World’ in those “Robber Baron” days and railroads immediately began to emulate his example.
NOTE: as a History Major I hate that term “Robber Baron”: in the first place it wasn’t coined until well into the 20th Century and it begs the question: robbed what? Admittedly these guys took great fortunes out of the American economy but at the same time they were BIG, BIG, BIG spenders. Some of the estates at Newport in Rhode Island cost an estimated $12M, and most of that was labor. That would equate to more than a quarter of a billion dollars today. That, my friend, is a pretty good contribution to the economy!!! Think about that when you get ready to 'Tax the Rich" and want to insure that they “Pay their fair share”, and if that doesn’t sound familiar you need to get your head out of the sand! and pay some attention to what is going on in this year of our Lord two thousand and eight!
Anyway, so goes the legend!!! So goes the legend!!! This may well be pure apocrypa but it is the way I heard it.
Okay. So now that that’s been settled, I’m glad locos are black - some with silver smoke boxes and fire boxes, and even some with white trim. It just seems natural that they should be those colors…
Tracklayer
Hmmm…are you sure it wasn’t a 4-6-6-4 UP Challenger?? Some of them were painted in the gray UP passenger scheme (see links below). I think all the UP 4-8-8-4 Big Boys were painted black.
Look again. at the end of my sentence, I had in parentheses, it said (Ho model)
The New York Central & Hudson River Railroad is t
If I respond at all I usually respond to comments such as yours there toot toot with a very brusque
however I will stroke your ego by allowing myself an exception.
Now, if you will re-read my response you will observe that a couple of things emerge.
Firstly I very specifically stated in my first paragraph
and in my final paragraph I advanced that this story may well have been apocryphl, in other words without any citation which means without verifiability. I have, however, seen this story advanced upon numerous occasions in the hobby - and prototype - press over the course of forty plus years so I have reason to give it a measure of credibility. I don’t know and I’m not sure just how it could be proven. It may be of the same nature as his son Willam H.'s “Public be damned” comment which has been proven to be an absolute media fabrication. It may not even have been William H. who gave the order for repainting but his son and The Commodore’s grandson, William K. Vanderbilt, both of whom at one time were directors of the Vanderbilt’s extensive railroad holdings who gave the order.
Secondly, I purposely left the “Standard Railroad” comment intact at the head of this response. I
I think black would still be the color of choice but they might do away with paint alltogether and powder coat instead. [;)]
The only thing, powercoating is extremly expensive (as in between a few hunred or a few thousand for the chassis of an automobile), and you need to electrify the whole area to be painted. Then you have to put it in an oven.
[quote user=“R. T. POTEET”]
If I respond at all I usually respond to comments such as yours there toot toot with a very brusque
however I will stroke your ego by allowing myself an exception.
Now, if you will re-read my response you will observe that a couple of things emerge.
Firstly I very specifically stated in my first paragraph
and in my final paragraph I advanced that this story may well have been apocryphl, in other words without any citation which means without verifiability. I have, however, seen this story advanced upon numerous occasions in the hobby - and prototype - press over the course of forty plus years so I have reason to give it a measure of credibility. I don’t know and I’m not sure just how it could be proven. It may be of the same nature as his son Willam H.'s “Public be damned” comment which has been proven to be an absolute media fabrication. It may not even have been William H. who gave the order for repainting but his son and The Commodore’s grandson, William K. Vanderbilt, both of whom at one time were directors of the Vanderbilt’s extensive railroad holdings who gave the order.
Secondly, I purposely left the “Standard Railroad” comment intact at t
[quote user=“toot toot”]
[quote user=“R. T. POTEET”]
If I respond at all I usually respond to comments such as yours there toot toot with a very brusque
however I will stroke your ego by allowing myself an exception.
Now, if you will re-read my response you will observe that a couple of things emerge.
Firstly I very specifically stated in my first paragraph
and in my final paragraph I advanced that this story may well have been apocryphl, in other words without any citation which means without verifiability. I have, however, seen this story advanced upon numerous occasions in the hobby - and prototype - press over the course of forty plus years so I have reason to give it a measure of credibility. I don’t know and I’m not sure just how it could be proven. It may be of the same nature as his son Willam H.'s “Public be damned” comment which has been proven to be an absolute media fabrication. It may not even have been William H. who gave the order for repainting but his son and The Commodore’s grandson, William K. Vanderbilt, both of whom at one time were directors of the Vanderbilt’s extensive railroad holdings who gave the order.
Secondly, I purposely left the "Standard Railroad&q
This is totally off topic, but as an aside, Henry Ford’s primary interest in using black paint did not stem from an interest in saving money or simplifying his operation as most people assume(although it would also achieve those goals quite nicely as well). Henry wasn’t nearly the skinflint that he’s been assumed to be, and he fully understood that in some cases, cheapest is not best. Ford astonished the world in 1914 by offering a $5 per day wage, which more than doubled the rate of most of his workers. The move proved extremely profitable; instead of constant turnover of employees, the best mechanics in Detroit flocked to Ford, bringing in their human capital and expertise, raising productivity, and lowering training costs. Ford called it “wage motive.”
No, Henry used black paint because in those days it dried faster than pigmented paints, which allowed his assembly line to move faster and more efficiently. Model Ts were in fact available in other colors prior to the use of the assembly line. It was only after Ford began using the assembly line that they switched entirely to black paint.
Mike
The answers in the previous postings are mostly nonsense, IMO. Early locomotives in most countries, including the USA, weren’t painted black. Baldwin, the US builder I am most familiar with, had a “style book” which described in great detail the paint finishes and decoration to be applied to their products. Right up until the end of the 1890s, their colour schemes only specified black on the smokeboxes and stacks, for the most part. Although I know bugger-all about the practices of other US builders, I would hazard a guess that they did something similar.
Cheers,
Mark.