Thanks all for the interesting insight. I found a couple of quotes (that may
add a little colour to the discussion) in two books published by the British
Railway Modellers of North America. The first is from Cyril R. Littlebury’s
Canadian Pacific Railway – 1918 to 1933 (Volume One) , by Donald M. Bain and
Lance W. Camp. The caption on page 49, accompanied by a very fine image of T1a
No. 5916 (on the turntable at Field in 1929 or 1930) includes the following:
‘Although later overshadowed by the later T1bs and T1cs, the first 20 2-10-4s
were fine looking machines , especially when new, with bluish planished steel
cladding on the boiler and cylinders, the firebox and booster pipes . Although
this gave the wipers extra work as they had to clean the surface with oily
rags, it gave the locomotive an appearance never to be forgotten.’
The second is from Memories of Canadian Pacific Steam Power in British Columbia
(Volume Two), by Jim Hope and Donald Bain. The caption on page 21, accompanied
by a photograph of T1b No.5920, taken at Revelstoke in 1941, includes:
‘The condition of the locomotive can only be described as “pristine”- one would
never know that Canada had been at war for almost two years nor that
hostilities were not going well for the Allies at this stage. The illuminated
number boards at this stage are still mounted on the stack cowling and the
locomotive still has its dark, bluish Russian Iron boiler jacket . Silvered
acorn nuts adorn the smokebox and the cylinder jacket, The rods are unpainted,
the lettering and lining are in gold leaf and the pre-1947 shield is on the cab
side.. The planished steel boiler jacket was to disappear in the mid 1940 when
it was deemed cheaper and easier to maintain good appearance with the jacket
painted grey rather than burnished.’
Jonathan
From: cpha-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:cpha-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of ;
Paul and Janice Clegg
Sent: Tuesday, March 02, 2021 12:00 AM
To: cpha@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [cpha] Re: T1a Selkirk boiler colour
I had a discussion several years ago with one of the mechanical people that
maintained the reproduction UP and Central Pacific (the other CP) steam engines
at the Golden Spike National Historic Park (Promontory). Their take was that
no one today knew exactly what process was used for individual engines/metal
that was called Russian Blue. He went further and stated that no one today
really knows for sure what the colours were, stating Russian Blue may have been
a misnomer. Of course, this just adds to the uncertainty but on the other
hand, within reason, many colours could have been correct!
Paul
On Mon, Mar 1, 2021 at 8:56 PM Jon <jon.makar@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Russian iron has been the subject of fairly frequent discussion on the Early
Rail list. It was made by a different process and wasn’t due to a simple
surface treatment. Rather, the original Russian iron affected the entire piece
of metal and involved mechanical processing. The blue colour was likely due to
reflections from the sky, possibly in conjunction with optical interference
effects from the structure of the metal. I’ve seen pictures of small pieces
that appeared greenish as well.
The very blue VH model might have been coloured assuming it was similar to
bluing, though. The tone looks much closer to that than to Russian iron.
Jon Makar
On Mar 1, 2021, at 6:45 PM, Craig Talbot <talbotc@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
The Russian Iron sounds very similar to the bluing that was once used on
firearms, again, as a method of corrosion protection.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bluing_(steel)
An example of the colour is here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iver_Johnson#/media/File:Iverwiki.jpg
and this photo is from a shotgun around world war one era. Best description is
a deep royal blue.
