NSWGR No. 5917
American-built power with an Australian working life.
Bring the engine
to life.
Start with the suggested palette or choose your own colours. Build gentle layers around the engine's distinctive shapes.
Suggested pencil shades and approximate screen swatches. These are not historical paint specifications.
Start lightly and build the darker surfaces gradually. Preserve the printed details.
Leave fine white highlights to separate the moving parts.
Keep the surroundings quieter than the locomotive. Retain light sky areas.
Look a little closer.
5917 in black with a red buffer beam and a pale front number, working an excursion train. Read each caption before using it as a colour or configuration reference.
5917 in black with a red buffer beam and a pale front number, working an excursion train. Photograph of the named locomotive. Preserved appearance may differ from its original working condition.
Bidgee · CC BY-SA 3.0 au · Source photograph. Resized and converted to WebP.
Historical colour view of 5917 moving with other locomotives in 1974. Its finish is weathered dark brown-black in this photograph. Photograph of the named locomotive. Preserved appearance may differ from its original working condition.
Philip Vergison · CC0 · Source photograph. Resized and converted to WebP.
Rearward station view of 5917 alongside a passenger carriage, with dark boiler and cab surfaces partly obscured by steam. Photograph of the named locomotive. Preserved appearance may differ from its original working condition.
Barnesy Barnes at English Wikipedia · CC BY 3.0 · Source photograph. Resized and converted to WebP.
5917 approaching with a train, showing a black boiler, red front details and a pale number on the buffer beam. Photograph of the named locomotive. Preserved appearance may differ from its original working condition.
Androo Aus · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source photograph. Resized and converted to WebP.
Close working view of 5917 in black with red front details, partly surrounded by steam. Photograph of the named locomotive. Preserved appearance may differ from its original working condition.
Barnesy Barnes · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Source photograph. Resized and converted to WebP.
Know the version.
The source below supports the locomotive identity and history. The photographs record the finish visible when each image was taken. A preserved or replica finish does not establish the original paint specification. Exact original paint shades and all period marking details have not been established for this guide.
The pencil example uses black and restrained red. Its palette is interpretive. The gallery records the particular appearances described in its captions; preserved engines, replicas and monochrome photographs cannot establish every original shade or marking.
The Picnic Train: locomotive fleet and organisational historyDid you know?
5917 was hauling early Picnic Train excursions to Kiama in 1973, linking today's heritage operation with a story more than fifty years old.
Make the details count.
Suggest coal with separate irregular marks.
Keep the cab distinct from the boiler with a small tonal shift.