Hi there,
Sorry if this is the wrong thread, but there is something that I’ve been wondering about USA steam trains.
Why are the cab interior of steam trains painted green?
I can’t seem to find any information about it.
Matt
I don’t know…
But in many cases the interior of a caboose was the same green.
The interior of many of the early diesels, the same green.
Machinery in most of the factories I worked in when I was younger, the same green 
Ralph
Psychologist’s have determined that green is a relaxing color for the eyes and mind.
Something to do with colour harmonics. I asked this same question years ago about why all the Lathes and Milling machines were painted Green.
Joe hits it.
tac
Ottawa Valley GRS
And these head doctors determined this long enough ago that olde time steam locomotives have their cab interiors painted green?
Yup, the color is called Institution Green. Probably used first in psych wards.
Steve Featherkile said:
Yup, the color is called Institution Green. Probably used first in psych wards.
Steve, did you have to get personal and bring up my childhood?
Sorry, I got carried away. I’ll go fall on my sword. 
WW2 RAF aircraft had their cockpits painted green , but that was to keep the pilots who were frightened of heights happy . Green fields? Oh , come on .
Didn’t help me though when I first started learning to fly gliders . No engine . Cockpit might as well have been puce for all I cared . But I grew accustomed to it and only screamed a little bit .
Did you know that at 5000ft they can still hear you on the ground ? Embarrassing .
Mike
The backhead is not green. But judging by what I see on the very right side of the photo, the cabin is green.
Ralph
Mike Morgan said:
WW2 RAF aircraft had their cockpits painted green , but that was to keep the pilots who were frightened of heights happy . Green fields? Oh , come on .
Didn’t help me though when I first started learning to fly gliders . No engine . Cockpit might as well have been puce for all I cared . But I grew accustomed to it and only screamed a little bit .
Did you know that at 5000ft they can still hear you on the ground ? Embarrassing .
Mike
Different green, Mike - that was called zinc chromate green and was applied to prevent corrosion on aluminium components - y’know, like most of the airplane. My dad used to call it ‘canned puke’. Being Irish he was well up on shades of green, having been raised where there were forty shades of it.
Another version was so-called phosphate green, similar to ZCG, but neither of them are anyway near as green as cab green, unless, of course, your name is Stevie Wonder.
tac
Ottawa Valley GRS
Hello Tac .
A lot of them had paint over the chromate .
Also ,the Mosquito for example had a wooden fuselage and the wood cannot be chemically etched .
Canvas bodies like Tiger Moths , same again .
My wooden gliders --same again .
Now , Lancasters were black inside the cockpit as were Lincolns , Shackletons etc .
Beaufighter , black cockpit and green rear cockpit .
Nimrods-grey . with white all over the bomb bays , u/cbays . and so on .
Difficult to give hard and fast rules , which makes modelling a lot of fun and creates arguments to the death (almost) among rivet counters .
Thanks for taking the interest to reply .
Mike Brit
PS By the way , you must have seen some of the colours used in the cabs of preserved locos
here in the UK . From White through to Black . I was making a Black Five in “0” and looked
at three real ones and finished doing the inside cockpit green , like the one at Bridgnorth
had at the time .
Don & Craig Hofsheier said:
Not all are green, cab of UP 844
(http://www.trainboard.com/railimages/data/500/844inside.jpg)
It all depends which parts they were aiming at. (http://rhb-grischun.ca/phpBB3/images/smilies/3.gif)
Lots more pictures at http://tinyurl.com/otw4ekf
Steve Featherkile said:
Yup, the color is called Institution Green. Probably used first in psych wards.
As in Hehehe,hihihi. 
Sorry guy’s my mistake! I took that about 25 years ago, old age setting in quick.
Yup- Green- Here is the cab inside of D&RGW 315.
It’s the original 1895 factory color. Go figure on why.