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I'm old enuf to know. The paint is 'red lead' your basic enamel primer in pre- EPA years. Now, of all the relatively thin metal (not much) on a steamer, the one part you don't want to rust through is,,,,,,,,,,the freakin' roof over yer head. It got painted far more often than any other place and was often painted between shoppings with red lead. Even roads like the CPR, fastidious to the end, had occasional units that didn't quite get around to a top coat of black. Some roads made it a style, some, PRR for example specified red lead for all "important" upper surfaces and left it at that. Without red lead, steel hulled ships would have gone away faster than Jaguar cars on the Atlantic coast! Now, like so much else, it's illegal.......children might chew it you know. Oh. by the way, it's rather an orangey brown out of the can, it goes browner with UV exposure and our old friend carbon soot.
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