Why did some steam locomotives in Europe had their wheels painted red?
Was there a reason for that other than just looking good?
Antoine
Red allows cracks and other potential defects to show up more readily.
Actually not painting them at all makes it easiest to see cracks. That's why freight car wheels can't be painted.
Dave H. Painted side goes up. My website : wnbranch.com
cacole Red allows cracks and other potential defects to show up more readily.
God's Best & Happy Rails to You!
Bing (RIPRR The Route of the Buzzards)
The future: Dead Rail Society
As I understand it, crack detection was the reason behind UP painting their loco trucks silver. I know this does not help with the red wheel question.
Steve_F As I understand it, crack detection was the reason behind UP painting their loco trucks silver. I know this does not help with the red wheel question.
I can't testify to the locomotive trucks but the passenger car trucks accumulated quite a thick layer of paint between shoppings! When they started to look a little shabby they would get another coat of paint (same holds true for Santa Fe.) The only true crack detection came during the rebuilding when they were Magnafluxed or Zygloed...
Maybe locomotive wheels being red has something to do with the current fad of painting your brake caliper red?
Seems there was a thread at Classic Trains about the inside of locomotive bells being red... don't know that it was conclusively answered.
Ed
As to why the Europeans (particularly the Germans I've noticed) use red wheels...I have a reproduction of a c.1856 color lithograph in my cube showing a 4-4-0 steam locomotive built by Lawrence (Mass.) Machine Shop . The pilot and all of the engine and tender wheels are painted red. I believe that was fairly common then; it may be that 150 years ago, most railroad wheels were painted red, but it died out here but continued in Europe.
As far as why they were red in the first place, maybe painting train wheels red started in the early days of railroading as a warning to people by the tracks as the train rolled by?? It could be (re cracks) that the fact that early wheels were iron, not steel, made a difference?? Iron is more brittle, maybe painting wheels red made it easy to see where the wheel was flaking apart, as it would open spots without red paint.
While wheels were painted red in Italy, in Germany the locomotive frame was painted red as well. I have always assumed that it was a corrosion resistant paint. The tender frame and tender trucks were red as well. The remainder of the locomotive was painted in high gloss black, with polished brass or aluminium numbers on black painted plates, and sometimes with polished metal boiler bands. Red wheels dated back to the state owned railways prior to 1920, when Prussian locomotives were often painted dark green with black trim and painted lining on cabs boilers and tenders.
M636C