Boiler paint color for TP steam engines

[bargetanika]

I want to decal an HO USRA 2-8-2 as TP, and leave it as is because it looks pretty close to an early photo of the 800 before they did the Elesco, the capped stack, and the pilot beam shielded air compressors.

My question is, were the boilers painted grey green way back then? This particular photo is indeterminate and I would like to avoid painting the boiler.

I’ve looked at a number of photos. The late period color ones, the boilers are mostly if not all black. Some BW shots, the boiler looks light but it could be the lighting angle, time of day, etc.

[bargetanika]

My friend in England asked the following:

“I assume real T&P locos did not have graphite boilers in regular service, but they may have had red lead paint on their cab roofs????? Do you know how the T&P painted their engines in the heyday of small steam?”

He is trying to model a couple of small TP steamers. Can anyone help him?

[Mike Vana]

@Patrick wrote:

My friend in England asked the following:

“I assume real T&P locos did not have graphite boilers in regular service, but they may have had red lead paint on their cab roofs????? Do you know how the T&P painted their engines in the heyday of small steam?”

He is trying to model a couple of small TP steamers. Can anyone help him?

TP steam did in later years have a heat resistant silver paint—- to replace the earlier graphite and oil— on the smokebox and firebox. This got grimy and dark in service but they did keep the other areas wiped down and kept clean even if there was no Russia Iron paint. A gray can even be used here.

Graphite and oil was used since pre WW2 paints did not do well with heat. The red paint on the roof of the cab was originally red lead primer that was unpainted since it would react with real paint but usually became sooty over time.

Jim Ogden

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