Ken,
I haven't painted a locomotive in a long time and I realize that
paint formulation has changed significantly in recent years, however,
when I did paint locomotives with graphite smoke boxes and fireboxes,
I mixed my own color using flat silver and flat black. The exact mix
is not really important since photos of Q locomotives show that the
color varied significantly in service. On prototype locomotives the
graphite mix was put on while the locomotive was under steam and the
surfaces were hot. Fireboxes and smokeboxes on most locomotives were
not lagged or insulated, so the surfaces were extremely hot. Graphite
was often used because it could withstand the heat while many paints
could not. It literally melted on the hot surfaces.
In service, the gray color often became darker due to dirt, soot and
other particles as well as weather. In particular, soot from the
stack blackened the top of the smokebox and streaked down the sides
due to rain run off. To achieve the affect that I wanted, I would
make my mix and paint the surfaces with the mixture using a small
fine brush. It doesn't need to be extremely smooth, because the real
applications weren't. Then, using flat black thinned, I add the soot
and streaking effect, again using a small fine brush. Keep in mind,
the real graphite application was done with a pipe connected to the
supply and an air hose. Depending on the care used, over spray often
occurred on adjacent surfaces.
While there are exceptions as evidenced by photographs, some things
were not painted graphite. These include the headlight and it's
mounting, Mars light if applied, bell and Elesco feedwater heater and
usually it's exposed piping. The stack and most other surfaces on the
smokebox were coated with graphite. Some heavy piping running along
the outside of the firebox was also left black.
As you indicated, in the very late years, O5B #5632 and some C&S
locomotives did have silver smokeboxes, possibly because the graphite
process and equipment were no longer available. It didn't look right,
but then, a chinese red cab roof didn't look right on #5632 either,
but it happened. Another paint issue is the rods. Many RRs did not
paint rods, but rather polished them. This made inspection for cracks
easier. On the Q in later years, painted rods were common on Lines
East power while polished rods were common on Lines West,
particularly power assigned to Lincoln, NE. Maybe they had more
manpower. More likely, it was shop pride and and the preference of
the foreman. ICC required regular inspection of things like rods.
Whether Lines East had to strip the rods for inspection, I have often
wondered. Like most roads, in general, Q steam locomotives had a
"family" appearance. Freshly shopped, they generally had the same
paint scheme. The only significant exception was the herald on the
tender. Only the big later power had the large colorful herald (They
used flush rivets where the herald was located). This included
hudsons, northerns and the 2-10-4s. All the rest had considerably
smaller heralds on the tender. There are a number of photos available
of Q power, including the mountains. I would look at some photos
before painting.
Bill Barber
Gravois Mills, MO
On Jan 18, 2011, at 2:57 AM, CBQ@yahoogroups.com wrote:
> Paint Question
> Posted by: "Kenneth Martin" kmartin537@surewest.net kmartin537
> Mon Jan 17, 2011 9:11 pm (PST)
>
>
>
> I am in the process of painting a Q mountain. It' s the first steam I
> have painted in a while and was wondering what others have used to
> paint the smokebox and firebox. In the distant past I used straight
> silver but have come to realize that is only good for 5632 in railfan
> service. I now realize smokeboxes are darker than silver but not as
> dark as straight graphite.
>
> Ken Martin
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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