In a recent video by the National Railway Museum in York, they showed the Flying Scotsman being painted by hand with brushes. The British Rail brunswick green is very pretty and the job done is first class, even the letters were hand painted. On the other hand, groups like TVRM and VMT uses sprayers, and put lettering on first, and then apply the over coat of black or tuscan or whatever. What are the benefits to these two different styles of painting, who all still uses brush painting in the US on engines and cars?

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I almost always brushed and rolled. I still would choose it as my preference should the need arise. Most of these things were not sprayed back in 1925 in the shortline enginehouse anyhow.

A few years ago, I recall seeing a photo and write-up in the British magazine The Railway Magazine of one of the professional shops doing brush painting. This was a shop being used by one of the service operators to rehab its equipment. The reason given was that this was done because of their air quality / safety requirements.

The Railway Magazine is probably the oldest railfan publication. It started back in 1897 to serve those people interested in railroads but not working in the industry.

Something to keep in mind about painting being done overseas is that some union contracts do not allow spray painting. I found this to be the case in Australia.

At Nevada State Railroad Museum we hand brush almost exclusively. We were able to show that the paint on the Mckeen car was sprayed so we sprayed.

This past spring I brush painted my sail boat hull with Awl Grip paint which is formulated for that application. The results were spectacular. Expensive but great.

We brushed the locomotive Glenbrook and the result was outstanding but we used lead based paint which is very forgiving. Lead based paint is historically appropriate for this restoration.

If you are serious about your paint it isn't hard to make your own. You just have to know where to get lead or how to make your own white lead. Industrial hygiene is very important.

It seems freight cars have been spray painted for a long time. In the collection of the Nevada Historical Society there is a record book from the Eureka & Palisades into which the company pasted paid invoices. I recall seeing an invoice from the Southern Pacific for a spray painter from c. 1898. Yes, more than 116 years ago.

I recall reading that the Pacific Electric changed to spray painting of it's streetcars and interurbans after the development of the automotive spray paint in the 1920s.