At Jokioinen Museum Railway in Finland we are reaching the final phases of a very long restoration project of a H.K.Porter 0-6-0T (tank) locomotive 2313/1901. There are few questions on the original paint scheme of the H.K. Porter locomotives we would like to know, as the locomotive was painted in traditional "locomotive green" when it arrived at our railway in 1972.
Was the original paint scheme of a such 1901 Tank locomotive black with white decorative stripes on the cabin (or was the color of stripes silver or gold)?
We have a couple of old pictures and the decorative stripes on the side of the cabin are clearly visible. They include a stripe following the edges of lower half of the cabin (under the windows) and a small rectangular shape on the side of the wood box and a circle around the builders plate. We do not have a photo of the back of the fire wood box (the rear of the locomotive) but it looks like the line following the edges of the cabin continue around the rear of the locomotive. Does anybody have an idea if there were also some rectangular shapes at the rear?
The second question id the builders name on the door of the firebox. I have seen some photos where I see the letters painted with white/silver paint, but our original photos show no painting at all or perhaps painting with a darker color (read?). It is hard to say with the B & W photos.
And the third is kind of follow up... the name of the railway ("Äänekoski-Suolahden Rautatie") was painted on the side of water tanks, and I guess it was done already at the factory. On the B & W photos it seems to be painted with white color, could it be so? From the photos it is hard to see if there was any decorative line painted on the side of the water tank, but it seems not, any comments on this possibility?
Anyway some of you might remember me asking the drawings of the same locomotive 6 years ago. Thanks for your help I found them from the Railway Museum of California. Now a lot has changed and we are aiming to get her running next summer just soon enough for her 101st birthday!
I will write a story about the renovation of this H.K. Porter on our web site, at the moment you may visit the site and see the story of a renovation of another quite much bigger narrow gauge locomotive the LWR 6.
I will be happy if you have any suggestions on these questions about the paint scheme.
Jussi Tepponen
Chief of Operations
Jokioinen Museum Railway, Jokioinen, Finland
