Making An Engine's Paintwork Shine

[Greg Wetzel]

What cleaning supplies would a railway use to make the paintwork on a steam engine shine? Some searches I've done mention cleaning oil (a mixture of paraffin and light oil) and others mention the use of soap and water. Which would be better at cleaning the engine?

 

[Elecman]

Paintwork shining was cleaning oil and lots of elbow grease

 

[Greg Wetzel]

Ok. Would cleaning oil be used for every part of the engine, from the boiler down to the wheels and motion? Do heritage railways still use this practice today? I understand that heritage railways may differ in their paintwork cleaning method, such as the Talyllyn Railway using car polish, but just as an overall general method that most, regardless of gauge would use.

 

[Gloster]

I am not an expert on this, but I would presume that when necessary soap and water or just water and cloths or just cloths had to be used first to give a clean base to polish up: no point in polishing the dirt. Thereafter the preferred polish, which I think varied between companies and even depots depending on the preference of whoever was in charge, was applied with a lot of elbow grease to the more publicly visible and painted up parts.

Elsewhere I presume that cleaning was restricted to removing dirt and other unwanted material from parts that needed to be oiled or could retain dirt that could get where it shouldn’t. I presume that was mainly a matter of large amounts of waste cloth and the similar being used to clean it off before the driver or fitter oiled where necessary.

But I am far from being an expert.

 

[Rescars]

Like Gloster, I have no claim to expertise on this, but traditionally I understand cleaning to have involved a protective coat of oil or tallow. IIRC one of the ideas behind Bullied's "air smoothed casing" was to facilitate mechanical cleaning/washing (which implies a soap and water approach), though I'm not sure this actually materialised. Others will know more.

What is certain is that standards of engine cleaning were much higher in the Victorian era than subsequently. According to Campbell Cornwell, William Stroudley on the LBSC, when finding the handrail on one of "his" locos just slightly greasy, peered at his gloves, said nothing but gave "the driver a look of mournful reproach which spoke volumes." At the other end of the country, Hugh Smellie on the GSWR detailed two cleaners to spend an entire week cleaning a loco in preparation for working a Royal Train - after which he inspected it with "a fine tooth comb". D L Smith records that Smellie said the cleaners had "done a good job - which from Smellie was equivalent to knighthood"!

 

[Gloster]

Thinking again, I suspect that the cleaning of paintwork was mainly cloths and elbow grease as well. Soap and water were probably only used to remove stubborn stains (no Persil in those days) as the sheer practical difficulties of obtaining and moving enough hot water about, even if the loco was in steam, probably made it too difficult to be done in shed conditions; many small sheds had minimal water facilities other than the column.

 

[Ziggy3legs]

A very long time ago there was an article in either The Railway Magazine or Railway World in which a former cleaner described the cleaning regime at the time. I seem to remember it was pre-grouping and possibly GWR. There were four cleaners in a gang, who having been allotted to a loco they then split into two pairs, one doing above the running plate and one below. He wrote about the quantity of cleaning materials that they were allowed to draw from the stores (I can't remember the exact quantities), but it include so much cotton waste (by weight), so much paraffin and a quantity of brick dust for polishing any copper/brass brightwork. It was very strict with regards to the quantities of cleaning materials issued and you drew your allowance and that was it and no more.

 

[furnessvale]

"Oily rag" is a recognised cleaning technique within the preservation movement outside railway circles, so I presume it is well used within.

 

[contrex]

What cleaning supplies would a railway use to make the paintwork on a steam engine shine? Some searches I've done mention cleaning oil (a mixture of paraffin and light oil) and others mention the use of soap and water. Which would be better at cleaning the engine?

My uncle, in the motor trade in the 1960s, told me of various tricks used by the dodgier type of used-car salesmen, including sawdust in gearbox and back-axle oil to stop whines, a hand on the gear lever to stop a tell-tale buzz in low gear, and a wipe over with a paraffin soaked cloth for a short-lived shine.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 12 Apr 2026 ==

"Oily rag" is a recognised cleaning technique within the preservation movement outside railway circles, so I presume it is well used within.

Didn't Brendan Behan, when in jail and threatened by one of the lesser henchmen of a Mister Big, say 'I may be afraid of the engine driver, but not his oil-rag'?