Why were Steam Engines painted "Black"

In Georgia a railroad had real pretty light purple engines, but the smoke turned it half black and made it ugly.  The CEO got tired of spending money and time cleaning them and hated to show the public an ugly locomotive so he ordered them pained black and wash them a lot less.

Well think about it,,,,,,,,since they burned coal or Bunker C for fuel, no matter WHAT color they got painted, it wouldn't have taken very long for them to be black anyway. Back in the early days, well prior to 1900, when lots of wood was used for fuel, the steam locomotives were painted all sorts of bright colors with LOTS of polished brass.

Besides, they would look pretty silly in Pink, Lionel had to find that one out the Hard way

Doug

They weren't ALL painted black.

Both the Texas & Pacific and the Frisco had a few dark blue steamers.

Dan

Southern had some green steamers and the PRR's were Brunswick Green. Great Northern had the Glacier Park scheme on several engines. Rutland's Last new steam, the light Mountains were green and the enginemen referred to them as "the Green Hornets."

Red was a common paint color like the little red caboose, or a little red school house, but that would never do in the railroad world, like oldiron side said the black paint match's the very nice color of the soot. 

I imagine it was a simple issue of economics. Back at the start of the 20th century you could get a Ford Model T in any color you wanted as long as it was black. Henry Ford found out that black paint dried the fastest so more cars could be built. I agree with other posters about soot and such but I would also think that in maintenance the black paint dried faster making down time less so the locomotive could be out earning revenue.

for exactly the opposite reason, to raise the ambient water temperature by even a few degrees, the railroads would have been in favor of black and darker colors to save on fuel costs.

just remember what a great man of the industrial revolution in this country said, You can get it in any color you want as long as it is black

Back in the day, as Hot Water alluded to, broad swaths of pink could be found on locomotives...

Actually, when the Model T first came out, black wasn't an option. It only came in grey, red, green and blue.

What reference do you have for that?

Ford used [You can get it in any color you want as long as it is black] in there 2003 centennial car & truck model advertisements.

McCalley, Bruce W. (1994). Model T Ford: The Car That Changed the World. Iola, WI, USA: Krause Publications. ISBN 0-87341-293-1.

Model T Colors

While Ford did eventually go to only black (and did say "Any customer can have a car painted any color that he wants so long as it is black"), from 1909 to 1913 black wasn't an option.

I back smd4:  Vintage car nuts know early "brass" Model T's were painted several

different colors and are correctly restored that way.  Black (actually a very dark blue...looks black to me) became a cost-saving standard after the first few years,

when you then heard the famous quotation cited above.

I never knew that about the early Model T's - learned my one new thing for the day.

--Greg

I forgot to mention, that at the end of the Model T's production, in 1926 and 1927

not sure of the years or just when this change to color began, when Henry's son Edsel had been begging for an update to the Model T, the Model T was again offered in colors other than black.  So there were two periods when the car was available in

various colors, when introduced, and when phased out. During all the "black" years,

Chevrolet, Star, and a plethora of makes were available, in colors, just above the T's

pricepoint, and, with their three speed transmissions, (including some oddball shift patterns like the Dodge's)  enough to make car shoppers spring for a few more dollars until Chevrolet outsold Ford.  Henry finally gave in and produced the Model A.

Another reason why steam locomotives were painted black was because for a long time, nobody could make paint that could stand up to the smokeboxes' hot temperatures. Eventualy somebody developed an aluminum-like color that could, but some railroads stuck with black or a very dark gray until the bitter end.

Actually, that "dark gray" on smoke boxes and firebox sides, was usually a mixture of valve oil or Linseed oil and powered graphite. On most railroads, neither the smoke box nor the firebox sides were insulated, so SOMETHING was needed to cover them that would NOT burn off quickly do to the direct heat.

Not really an explanation as to why the entire locomotive was painted black. Besides, hardly any locomotives used aluminum paint on the smokebox/forebox. Most used the boiled linseed oil and graphite that Hot references. This could vary from a light grey to a dark black.

As noted, locomotives in the beginning were quite colorful. The Victorian era saw locomotives painted in all shades, from blues, yellows, greens, and even pinks, as shown above. Brass was all over the place. Elaborate pinstripes adorned wheel spokes, cabs and domes. The UP 119 even features several detailed oil paintings on the sand dome and tender! In this era, locomotives were permanently assigned to an engineer, who often spent many dollars out of his own pocket to personalize his steed with extra bling (You see the same mindset at work today with long-haul truckers and their tractors). Engineers back in the day paid the ashcats to polish their engines every night with oily rags.

How about red drive wheels? Red was one of the most expensive colors of paint there was (and still is!), and if you wanted to show off, this is the color you used. The same reason firemen painted their fire engines this color--it was a source of pride!

After the death and devastation of the Civil War, locomotive decorating schemes became a little less flamboyant. You saw less brass, less striping, darker colors. Baldwin engines started using a dark olive color (which appears black in B&W photos). And, as the story goes, the pinchpenny New York Central eventually started painting the entire engine black, which did save enourmously in the cleaning department. Other railroads soon followed suit.

No, locomotives were't always black. And neither were Model Ts!

As Hot Water said, smoke boxes were not painted. While there are high-tech paints today that would likely survive the high temps of the smoke box, they are far more expensive than a little linseed oil and some graphite.

"If it ain't broke, don't fix it." applies here.