The lettering style I/we applied was created by Ernie Robart in 1976 when he did some archeology on 484's tender and discovered the original lettering applied by Baldwin in 1925. He traced it off and created the C&TS lettering that was used until the vinyl lettering started showing up in 1991 or so. By then I was out of the engine painting business Bush campaigned for the flying C&T thing, which was first used on 497. The rest is history.
The 1925 BLW lettering is actually standard gauge lettering. The 480s came the standard gauge lettering on the tenders and standard gauge cab numbers too. One can always tell if an engine still had its factory paint by these two items.
And yes, they were painted BLACK. With aluminum leaf lettering per the BLW spec sheet.