In John Fischer's oral history (as told to Al Holck, Burlington
Bulletin No. 31, p. 38), the retired engine painter talks about
painting the smoke/fireboxes of Q steamers by simply mixing up
graphite with a little water and applying it with a sponge. That was
during the late 1920s-30s. The technology may have changed, since he
describes this as doing it "the hard way." But you can see where color
variation might be built in from the start.
More variation would be introduced over time. With wear, the color
probably darkened considerably, through dulling and integration of
soot (despite washings). And given that you have a lot of tiny
reflective particles, the overall appearance of these surfaces in
photos (like that of, ...oh dear, Greybacks) no doubt was also
affected by the sky, light, season, time of day, etc.
Toward the end of the steam era, when steam engines were regarded as
more historical curiosities and PR draws, some railroads, including
the Q, began painting their surviving steamers with silver smokeboxes.
As for models, I dunno. The ones I've seen by CIL and others look
pretty good to me, at least for an engine just out of the shops. Of
course you can still weather that down, and maybe will want to, but
seems like a decent starting point (imho).
Happy modeling,
Jonathan
--- In CBQ@yahoogroups.com, Michael Matalis <mmatalis@...> wrote:
>
> Graphite is a silvery-grey color. My understanding is that a mixture
> of graphite and oil would be painted/sprayed on hot surfaces like the
> smoke box to bake on. After a number of applications the layer could
> get quite thick. I had a builder's plate off a TP&W engine that was
> so laden with graphite that it was almost unreadable. I tried a
> number of methods to take it off that were either ineffective or just
> smeared it around until I hit on lye. It took the graphite right off,
> and does the same thing to your skin if you are not exceedingly careful.
>
>
> Thank you kindly,
>
> Mike Matalis
> Downers Grove IL
>
>
> On Nov 10, 2008, at 6:34 PM, trainboy.geo wrote:
>
> > OK, I may be about to stirring up the old kettle, but what color best
> > matches the smoke box and fire box? I have seen color photos taken in
> > the 40's and 50's and many of these appear to be a "silver". Even on
> > professionally painted or factory painted brass models, the color
> > looks
> > like a real silver.
> >
> > Other photos (and some models) appear to be a medium to dark gray.
> >
> > Still others claim that the color used was graphic, which is almost
> > black.
> >
> > Is there a "standard" color that was used, or was it up to the
> > division
> > paint shops?
> >
> > Ray Bedard
> > San Jose CA
> >
> >
> > ------------------------------------
> >
> > Yahoo! Groups Links
> >
> >
> >
>
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