Green Boilers on Missouri Pacific Lines

[John Hardcastle]

I have a question for everyone in the know of what colors were painted on MP steamers. If you have read my last post and watched my last YouTube video of P-73 # 6617, my latest build. You would know that she is in need of a new paint job. I want to paint her boiler green. I remember reading somewhere that they did paint at one time their boilers green. Can anyone give an opinion if that was true?

[Bud Moss]

The MoPac may have painted boilers green on some passenger locomotives in the late 1800, but no Pacifics received green boilers. Mike Adams wrote a long time ago that the MP may have thought about it, as they did with streamlining steam, but neither happened. So, black with graphite smokebox and ash pans is the colors you want. Jerry Michels

[John Hardcastle]

Thanks Jerry for your response. I have always liked the DRGW green boilers and after seeing a painted model of a T&P M1 with a green boiler I was just hoping that there was a slim chance that MP had a green boiler some time in its past.

[Bud Moss]

Mike, I think if the MP has painted its boilers green it would have received a lot of recognition in the press and in the modeling fraternity. I think the decisions not to go with different paint and streamlining was due to the fact that the MP was in receivership and these would be considered expenses it did not need. Jerry

[princessclyne69]

The president of Missouri Pacific after 1923, L. W. Baldwin (1875-1946), was reported to have said ‘the only proper color for a steam locomotive is black’.

If someone can supply a context for this quote, I’d appreciate it. I read this quote more than once in the 1970s.

Ron Merrick

[Bud Moss]

Ron, I have heard that quote. I think it is in MoPac Power. Jerry Michels

[princessclyne69]

I have that book open here right now, gathering background material. I had a sneaking suspicion that might be the case.

RG7

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