I remember asking one of the shop guys this and the answer I got was essentially that it was a fad not in style anymore.
What happened to making what is left of our live steam engines here in the U.S. look stylish? All are just black, black, black, black, and more black.
A little design around the number, some nice outlining of the tender, paint on the wheels and cylinder housing goes a long way. I always thought they looked sharper this way.
Example: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/c ... asburg.jpg
Does any existing railroad in the U.S. do this anymore? I miss it