The black boiler is the way the sole survivor, 610,is painted at the Texas State Railroad, but back in the day T&P painted all of the steamers (except the blue postwar passenger engines) with “Light russian” boilers in actual service, a lot of people use GN gray green but with weathering it could look lighter and even a little bluish but some of that is due to deteriorating photo colors.
At least two buyers and I was one, so advised Scott Mann and he did consult a T&P expert to get the right color, or at least as right as it can be at this point.
These are THE iconic Texas locomotives and I never dreamed a three Rail “O” one would be made, I would look at Pennsys and Santa Fe’s and dream of kitbashing one or having a custom builder do it. I sold off two firearms to pay for it, it’s truly the locomotive I thought I would buy in Heaven... if I ever get there!
I have a couple of color photos I can post later- having internet problems just at the moment. One is 2-10-4 638 and mountain 909.
