Re: Colorful Steam Locomotives.

Doug,

To what are you referring ignores it exactly? Believe it or not, the color used on the jacket of the "Bully Boy" is about as close to Russia Iron as it comes, the idea of it being "blue" is a myth, in fact Russia Iron gets its blue from reflecting the color of the sky due to the high gloss of the metal. There were of course variations of Planished Iron (Russia iron is a form of planished iron, from Russia of course) which varied in colors from plain grey, to a green, a red or a blue but these were slight tints nothing like what we see recreated today. My good friend Craig Hoefer got his hands on a sample of Russia Iron and had it analyzed his finding is that the true color of the metal is a medium grey nothing more its the reflective quality that adds all the magic to the medium. Jim Wilke who is mentioned below has traveled and seen many examples of Russia Iron agrees on the color of this amazing metal. For those of you wondering what I speak of when I say "surviving examples" Jim has reported that a number of roofs in Alaska are still Russia iron and I imagine a few stove pipes as well. The Gov. Stanford at CSRM still has its Russia Iron jacket, however it was in such bad shape at the time the time of restoration that when the jacket was cleaned it lost its reflective qualities and reverted to the matte grey it is today once again showing the true color of the metal.

Andrew Brandon
A fixture here since Y2k.
[www.pacificng.com]
[www.spnghs.org]

"An end to red domes in our lifetime!"