Time for more STEAM

[heath]

These were taken on the same day as the deisel one, same camera too.

Nice old steam loco. This one was actually built in the suburb next to the one I live in, so you could say it is a local.







They also had an active steam loco doing a loop trip that took about 20 minutes that I went on. My avatar was taken in the mirror of the compartment i was in. This next shot is of some of the kids enjoying the ride. Many had not been on a steam train before.



Thanks for looking.

Heath

[Randy]

Interesting shots Heath. It's interesting all the green steam locomotives around the world.

[heath]

I wonder why there are a lot of old locomotives that are/were painted green?

Heath

[John Parry]

You need to get Rachel talking about this subject. I seem to recall that here in UK, the railway companies that served the east side of the country had green livery, while those on the west were maroon.

Now I've typed that, I can think of so many exceptions that it makes a nonsense out of the statement... Don't know!

John

[Rachel]

Before 1921, in the UK, there were an enormous number of railway companies and an enormous range of liveries ... black, blue, green, red, yellow and all variations of those. In 1921 was the Grouping which more or less reduced the number of companies to four.

London & North Eastern - Eastern England & Scotland - Apple Green
London Midland & Scottish - Wales, North Western England & West/North of Scotland - Maroon
Great Western - West of England - Brunswick(?) Green
Southern - South of England - Malachite Green

That's a very rough breakdown and there were exceptions in area and colour. But green still seemed to be a popular colour. After WWII British Railways adopted green for their express locomotives. I could go on ..............

[heath]

Thanks for that small piece of rail history Rachel. I am not sure if the reason we in Australia painted the locomotives green was for the same or similar reason. I may have to do some investigating.

Heath

[herron]

Maybe I just never spent too much time really looking at them, but my memory tells me most the steam locomotives that used to be in service around here were black.


Was that really the case, or is it just a "black" hole in my memory?

[mickeyobe]

I too remember only black steam engines. Although I believe the Royal train in 1939 was blue. When diesel came in they were and are painted various colours but lost the romance of the sounds and the steam of the older engines.
I remember, as a child, the thrill of standing on a bridge over the railway yards and letting the steam envelope us. The sounds, the hissing and chugging and whistling and clanging and squealing were both intimidating and thrilling. We would grasp the railing very tightly.
Mickey