Colors of the Trains

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The colour of trains Most people interested in trains use colour as a means of identifying locomotives and rolling stock and the operators that run them. But how many of us think about what the colours really mean? In this article, George Kamensky explores the meanings of the colours used to identify our Australian trains. Images as credited.

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n kindergarten painting lessons about 40 years ago, all my small colleagues were painting houses under sunshine, green forests, rivers, flowers, smiling mums and dads. I was interested in trains. It was probably because my father was a train driver and in all the bedtime stories that he told me, my heroes were locomotives, railcars, signal lights and crossovers. Maybe it was because of these magic, black steam engines, which were still used in those days manoeuvring the old, dirty and deadly tired coal wagons on a small railway attached to the seaport not far from our home. I was three years old and sure that the bestcoloured pencil was black. Steam locomotives should be black, I thought, for important reasons: they are hot and powerful, they are big and heavy, and they are dirty, steamy and very fast. Particularly at night, when a train rolls through the darkness and the unknown towards something good and bright which will surely happen tomorrow morning. About two thousand years ago the Greek architect Vitruvius said there are three main criteria that should be used to judge the quality of buildings: usefulness, strength and beauty. Therefore, beauty should be based on usefulness and strength. This is why steam locomotives are mostly painted black. Only black will keep the same colour under the combined attack of smoke, oil and dirt. Isn’t black a useful, strong and beautifully distinctive colour? Time, however, is faster than trains. Today, a tank engine ala Thomas tootles on the parquetry floor of my house – great fun for

my son Timothy. But now the days of the ‘real’ steam trains are finished. Diesel- and electrically-powered rail vehicles now rule the tracks. But some things remain the same: questions such as what colours should these trains be? Painters of the 1920s and 1930s were rapidly discovering the scientific vision of the world where everything around them was described and explained by the laws of physics and mathematics. Suprematism. Black Square No 2 (1913) – a painting by Kazimir Malevich was the philosophical understanding of the ‘first’ and the ‘last’’ steps in our lives, an impression of a painter’s vision of our small world in the endlessness of space. It is only a black square from frame to frame. When I saw this painting for the first time, I thought this is an artificially declared death of Art. Nothing is left behind. However, Art has survived. The young and energetic brother of the centuries old art of painting was born on the waves of Scientific and Industrial Revolutions: Industrial Design. This young fellow was able to answer some quite difficult questions: • Which colour should the sporty, two-seater cabriolet be painted to increase the impression of speed? • Which colour should the walls in the office be painted to let people’s eyes relax from the strain of computer monitors? • Which colour of umbrella is the best to go “singing in the rain” with? If your answers to the above questions were red, green and yellow, then we are ready to discuss the main question of this rainbow-coloured article: What colour should our Australian trains be painted?

Why is it that steam locomotives are mostly painted black? Is it because black is the only colour that wears well under the combined attack of smoke, oil and dirt. Black certainly appears to be a good colour choice for R707 as it makes plenty of smoke at Lethbridge (northwest of Geelong) in August 2003. Steve Munro

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RAILWAY DIGEST

Above: CityRail ‘S’ and ‘T’ sets cross the viaduct spanning Long Cove, near Lewisham in December 2002. Do the grey and silver colourings of these electric multiple units (EMUs) provide an impression of power, strength and practicality, or are they drab, soul-less machines? Dominik Giemza

Below: Most Australians live in and around our coastal cities, those jungles made of concrete, steel and glass. Life in big cities is fast, but trains (and cars) are faster and we don’t want them to hunt us down. High visibility of rail vehicles seems to be one way giving people an even chance: the rest is up to them. Stuart Turnbull

I presume there are a couple of places to start looking for answers. First of all, we are so fussy with the colours of our cars. My car is white because it is a practical colour for the hot climate of sunny Australia. My wife doesn’t like the white coloured car because “it doesn’t look solid enough”. So, white is not solid, not reliable, and not personal enough for my wife’s family car. But what about trains? Let’s ask ourselves more questions. Do you really believe in white elephants, pink hippopotami or orange whales? Why did Nature see fit to colour them all grey? It could be that it is practical to be grey in the jungles and oceans. Grey is probably a good indication of strength and power too. Grey is also an elegant colour that looks good on objects regardless of their size. What could be a more impressive example of practicality, strength, power and elegance than a ‘stainless steel’ or ‘wet asphalt’ grey coloured train? Let’s wake up from this dream. We live mostly in cities, those grey concrete, steel and glass jungles. Our life in big cities is fast, but trains are faster and we don’t want them to hunt us down. That means we should be audibly and visually warned about oncoming danger. Therefore trains need to be clearly visible, Visibility in the language of a rolling stock engineer means: “The physical characteristics of an approaching train which enable it to be seen at a pre-determined distance by a person whose vision and colour perception when assessed are found to be normal.” Not too boring? This is why we need to think again about the colours of trains. They can kill us if we ignore them. Many years ago someone said: “If you would like to predict the future – learn the past.” For thousands of years we, as human beings, accumulate knowledge. This is done for many reasons, but the simplest is that through knowledge we hope to provide a happier, better and safer life for us, and our children, in the future. Engineering standards are concerned with the application of the knowledge of colours, visibility and aesthetics. Let’s go over the page and consult these standards and see what they recommend as to the significance of colours in industry. MARCH 2004

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RED YELLOW

• Danger, Stop

• Caution signs

• Fire fighting equipment • Stop signs and controls • Emergency signs

• Hazard markings • High visibility markings

GREEN • Proceed, go

BLUE

• Safe places

• Information signs

• First aid equipment

• Instructions to be followed

• Start buttons

Just for fun, if we were to translate these colour meanings from the world of engineering and industry into the realm of Nature, we can see that these fundamental colours have the following meanings:

RED • Danger from venomous creatures (the red back spider for example) and poisonous plants • Fire, heat – don’t touch or you’ll get burnt • Blood, raw meat – the struggle for life

YELLOW • Denotes the need for caution, especially with venomous creatures (wasps, bees) • High visibility and attractiveness. Yellow flowers are highly visible in nature so as to be noticed by pollinating insects.

GREEN • The great forests of the world that can quickly conceal anything that hides within • Growth, life, healing. The first green buds on the trees and plants tell us that spring has arrived and winter has ended.

BLUE • The ocean and the sky. Being able to read the environmental information shown by the clouds and the sea can indicate wind, rain and storms, allowing animals and people to take shelter. Not following these instructions can be uncomfortable at least, and fatal in the extreme. Pacific National’s NR103 wears a winning combination of colours. It looks solid and dangerous, convincing enough for a 130-tonne monster running across the countryside. The two dominant colours state plainly: “I am dangerous” (Yellow) and “Follow me” (Blue). The well-balanced size of the white letters makes the locomotive look busy and also aids visibility, while the deep blue is another colour that can hide the grime and dirt found in railway service every day of the year. Neill Farmer

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The above associations suggest that in spite of our best efforts, we are still a part of Nature and that we shall follow our instincts in regard to colours, as laid down by Nature. Having come this far, it’s time to have a look at the railway rolling stock that we find around us, and see what message is encrypted for us in the colours of the trains. As an old Russian saying says: “Better to see it once instead of hearing it ten times.” RAILWAY DIGEST

Yellow and Brown colours look natural on the Robe CM40-8Ms in the sunburned Pilbara (WA) landscape. The solid, head down look of these locomotives may also be reminiscent of beasts of burden. Can you imagine a long caravan of tired, thirsty and sweating camels doing hundreds of kilometers a day with heavy loads across the desert? Greg Travers

A convincing colour combination between warning Yellow and hardwearing Green makes both a solid and reliable impression on these Freight Australia units, working through Picton in the Southern Highlands of NSW. A good use of the ‘Australian’ colours of green and gold symbolise the ‘Australia’ part of Freight Australia. Mark Hardacre

The drabness of the Green in some of the more temperate parts of Australia aids the concealment of the locomotives (counteracted to some extent by the Yellow) and is the curse of railway photographers. However, when taken out of context and placed in the dominant desert landscape of South Australia, the colours stand out, as anything green would in the desert. Stuart Turnbull

MARCH 2004

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In a scheme reminiscent of the coastal sunrise, L265 looks like it is in tropical party mode, supported by the complex combination of Yellow, Orange, Blue and White For the moment, work can wait! The colour scheme of L265 looks a little too optimistic and carefree for Hunter Valley coal traffic. Chris Nuthall

The Orange Body and Black stripes on ARG locomotive 3101 throw down a clear challenge: ‘stay away’: reminding us perhaps of a wasp or another venomous creature? Do we really need a clear and unambiguous indication of the danger inherent in the train? The number of road-rail collisions at level crossings all over Australia would make it seem as though we do. Larry Zanker

Both the 2800 class and the trailing 2200 class unit are clad in QR’s Maroon and Yellow livery. The colour design of the QR scheme is an organic composition of the two elements of warning Yellow and industrial Maroon. These colours are not for entertainment - this is for everyday work! Scott Jesser

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RAILWAY DIGEST

The author would like to agree with James Bond. The Silver AstonMartin is the best-looking ‘macho’ car around. Remember too, that the first Terminator was Silver as well, once we discovered the real machine underneath. It was majestically coloured with the cold sheen of stainless steel. Sterile, sharp, solid and keen to perform. These Hamersley Iron locomotives look like alien machines placed in the middle of the timeless Pilbara, never pretending to fit in or blend with the landscape. These locomotives are here for a purpose. Greg Travers

CountryLink’s XPT livery of White and Blue are reminiscent of aircraft and ocean liner colour schemes and make the train an organic part of the sky and clouds in this picture. There could, however be some inherent problems with this colour scheme through the essential conflict between the form and content of the train. White is a difficult colour to keep clean with the XPT’s intense operational tempo, with the trains soon looking ‘tired’ without regular, thorough cleaning. Also, can a colour scheme designed to attractively package the XPT also work to maximise the train’s visibility? (This colour scheme may blend in just a little too well with the background.) Steve Munro

Whether we like it or not, we instinctively try to see the natural world in artificial machinery around us. Colour is a difficult subject. One scientist has said: “The elegant abstractions of physics and art analysis are complicated by the brain’s insistence on interpreting the colour signal that reaches it from eye.” Four and a half billion of us around the world have a different vision and different heritage, traditions and customs. In China, white is the colour of death; in Europe it is black. In my native Russia, red signifies beauty; in Germany - the fire brigade. MARCH 2004

However, as soon as the combination of colours around us makes our social and private lives comfortable, the gentle hand of Her Majesty Harmony will rule our beautiful world! George Kamensky is an engineer working for Bombardier Transportation and lives in Brisbane, Queensland. This is his first article for Railway Digest. This article contains the author’s own views on the subject and does not reflect the policy or opinions of Bombardier Transportation. 21