Steam & Excursion > This A Most Unusual Condition On An Operable Steam Locomotive!

Just when you think you have seen everything when it comes to steam motive power, you find something totally unique and very hard to explain.  That is what we have here with this photo of Western Pacific #81 in Oakland, California in September of 1947.

Needless to say, something has gone terribly wrong with the paint on her tender.  At first blush it appears to have been white-washed, but that does not seem to be the case.  Somehow the paint is failing in large patches on the tender.

Again, this is something I for one have never seen before, especially on mainline steam power.

Martin



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 01/11/21 02:18 by LoggerHogger.

---

---

Is it because the 8 is upside down?   Looks like something really caustic got to it.

Frisco1522 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Is it because the 8 is upside down?   Looks like
> something really caustic got to it.

Looks like somebody took a grinder to it....perhaps to strip rust...and the tender was needed post haste to replace another so it was added to the 81 without a paint job....but then 81 looks to be haphazardly put in service...

Looks to me like someone tried to wash off some grafitti but wasn't entirely successful.
Bill Pyper
Lacey, WA
 

wjpyper Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Looks to me like someone tried to wash off some
> grafitti but wasn't entirely successful.
> Bill Pyper
> Lacey, WA
>  

It was 1947, graffitti didn't exist then. At least that's what some here say...

It looks to me like it had a large logo on the left, and a railroad name at the center of the tender that were painted on; and then ground out or painted out.

There is a new logo with Western Pacific in a fancy font at the front of the tender that looks like it was made in a sign shop; with shiny baked enamel paint, and then screwed to a frame mounted on the tender.

Bill

The logo here is the standard and only logo on WP locomotives.  They never had larger ones or ones at the back of the tender like the first stain.

Martin

PHall Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> It was 1947, graffitti didn't exist then. At least
> that's what some here say...

The origin of "spray paint" dates back to 1949, when it
was designed for applying aluminum paint coatings to
radiators.  So...

Now... if spray paint was available in 1947, the group of
vandals that would take advantage of it here in the US
was likely insignificant.  But that was a different America
than we have today.

/Mitch

Buhl56 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> It looks to me like it had a large logo on the
> left, and a railroad name at the center of the
> tender that were painted on; and then ground out
> or painted out.
>
> There is a new logo with Western Pacific in a
> fancy font at the front of the tender that looks
> like it was made in a sign shop; with shiny baked
> enamel paint, and then screwed to a frame mounted
> on the tender.
>
> Bill

WP never painted the logo on. It was applied to a separate steel sheet and the sheet was mounted on the tender. IIRC it was enameled on the sheet.
Same thing applied to the logos on freight cars and cabooses too.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/11/21 16:41 by PHall.

If it was more uniform, I'd think it was painted over condensation.

Posted from Android

M-K-T did the same thing.

Posted from Android

Was this one of the locomotives that pulled the "Cirkus Train" where kids were allowed to decorate the train wirh chalk?

There is a photo of the 81 on a passenger train on 3rd street in Oakland.  In one of the photos it has the same markings on the tender.

https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?11,3761738,3761738#3761738

Bob

If the photo dates in Dunscomb & Stindt's Western Pacific Steam Locomotives, Passenger Trains and Cars are accurate, 81 traded tenders some time between March 1947 (p.61) and August 1947 (p.57).  The tender in the March 1947 photo has a lower water tank height relative to the oil bunker and no scuff marks on the engineer's side.  The replacement tender in the August 1947 photo shows the same marks as in the photo Loggerhogger posted.  The 81 would have carried that replacement tender in service for only a matter of months, as page 306 indicates the locomotive was last used in August 1947.  It went to scrap two years later in December 1949.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 01/13/21 23:11 by Evan_Werkema.

wjpyper Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Looks to me like someone tried to wash off some
> grafitti but wasn't entirely successful.
> Bill Pyper
> Lacey, WA
>  
If that would be true it stayed on for some time think that you are right it didnt run off was scrubbed.

If you look it pretty consistant with rub marks. Id say this tender was probably on its side and since it was not long for service it probably got a replacement medalion off another out of service tender.

At the end of the last Century (20th) I was an engine wiper member of the SBRHS. We were getting ready to move the Santa Fe 3751 from the location on the spur at San Bernardino, CA. It was decided to put a coat of wax on the 3751 before moving it.
It was a sunny day, with just a slight February Southern California chill in the afternoon. I knew that auto wax did not go on metal well if the ambient temperature was 50 degrees or less, but seemed warm enough to wax the tank on the tender. We started with small sections applying the auto wax, then buffing it out, or trying to buff it. Instead the wax would not buff out, so we thought that maybe the water temperature inside the tank was below 50 degrees, or too cold, causing the surface temperature on the side of the tank to be low enough to cause the wax to turn that same paste color that we see in the b&w photo. Although fortunately, the 3751 was not as bad as it shows in the photo. We got what little we did buffed out and guess it was decided to wait. The paint job on the 3751 already looked good anyway. 
Steve Rippeteau