Johnson Barr Wrote:
=======================================================
> Just a fad, K.C. -
>
> White Tires on Steam Locomotives - like whitewall
> tires on them there ottie-mobeels -
> was jist a fad perpetrated by the purveyors of
> titanium oxide - the whitest of the white
> pigments available as an additive to the linseed
> oil used as a base for paint - otherwise
> just a low-value by-product, along with vanadium
> and tellurium, from the processing of
> gold-bearing ores by greedy mining corporations.
>
> The fad itself was a leftover from the previous
> century's fascination with the white Ostrich
> plumes once used to decorate lady's Opera hats and
> prevent children sitting in the row behind from
> seeing the scandalous goings-on prevalent on stage
> in the entertainment productions of those times.
> (See
> [
ngdiscussion.net]
> 5399 for further details on the effect of the
> Ostrich Plume Opera Hat fad on the population of
> Rocky Mountain Ostriches in the Silver Plume area
> during the late 1800's.)
The real reason for painting the tires white was to aid the locos in parallel parking. Kinda like curb feelers. After parking you checked them out. If the white paint was scraped off, you parked too close to the curb.