My Son who is old enough to know better just asked me ----
“Why are most Mining Locos painted white ?”
“I dunno” sez I , “I shall go to that fount of all knowledge that is great and good and rail orientated”.
But alas , I couldn’t find such a place so came here instead .
So , why ? And all mining accessories too ?
And while we’re about it , why is surface equipment almost always yellow ?
Who wrote the rules on that ?
We gotsta know , guys .
Mike Brit
Visability ?
Just a guess , but they probably didn’t have day glow paint when they started with rules.
Easier to see in the dark in the mines…?
Why are school buses painted yellow and not green, visibility for safety.
Well , I still don’t know the answer , but our local paint factory make JCB yellow and Caterpillar Yellow , both recognised as a colour in their own right by Paint Standards .
There are several other titled colours too ; Ford Tractor Blue , John Deere Green , Terex Green , and so on . There is a substantial demand for it but it does not seem to get used in the field (Literally) , local bulldozers etc. all seeming to use Thames Valley Mud .
But the mining engines being white is so widespread that there must surely have been a regulation for it , because they have so many flashing orange lights on them you’d have to be a bat not to see them . I cannot find reference in Mining Regulations and was hoping that someone here would know .
Mike Brit
ps just to show it might not be a regulation colour , a couple of mine museums here have blue locos taking the public trains round the mines
I chime in to say possibly that white might also aid in cleaning. Nice glossy surfaces clean easier, and easier to tell when you’ve got it clean.
As for surface equipment, let’s not forget that lovely shade of Allis Orange. Unfortunately it seems that yellow has finally pushed orange out.
My late Uncle Ted, who was a mining engineer in North Wales, was pretty much involved in the business until he died at the early age of 59. When I had asked him, many years ago, that question, he told me that it was because mining equipment painted white was easy to see in hazardous conditions, especially if people undergound were rushing around trying to get out of the way of something nasty.
Seems reasonable to me, even now.
tac
Mike, it hearkens back to the days of sail in the Royal Navy during the Wars of the French Revolution. Below decks, especially on the Gun Deck, everything was painted red, so that even the Landsmen would not be overwhelmed by the sudden wash of blood caused by the odd cannon ball fired by a French Man O’ War. Equipment that was used to haul the cannon balls and powder around were painted white for visibility in the dark, red spaces of the Gun Deck. That, and it was considered by the Gunner to be a sign of good luck.
Topside, so that the Bo’s’ns equipment didn’t get mixed up with the Gunners, they were painted yellow, a color (colour?) favored by most Bo’s’ns.
After the Frogs were defeated, most of the fleet sought employment in the mines, being stalwart fellows. They took their favorite colors with them.
And, that’s as good a story as any of them. 
Steve , I shall wave a white flag in your honour ; your reply defeated me .
Tac , that has that ring of truth about it ; white would obviously show up in the blackness , but I am forced to wonder if it is a regulatory colour because of it becoming widespread only recently.
When I was at Grammar School (where I failed grammar , obviously) we had regular organised trips down the local coal mines . Whether this was to encourage us to become subterranean species , I have no idea , but it gave us an exciting day off school .
Anyway , there was a distinct lack of white paint except for on the bricked tunnel walls .
A little game they played with us was to turn off all the machinery and leave only our helmet lamps as lighting , then invite us to listen to the coal “talking” . It was an experience which instilled a terror into some (not me , I was too stupid to worry) ; the grinding rumble of shifting coal was indeed rather worrisome , even some of the miners looked a bit worried .
The result of all this was to make our faces white with fear , a sort of glowing sweaty white which I can assure you did away with the need for white paint .
We were warned before descending not to fall for the trick of looking at the Golden Coal Lump (the miners’ equivalent of the Golden Rivet) . Our genteel Steve will explain the meaning of that , I am too coarse to give an explanation to those of a timid nature .
Mike Brit (some time explorer of Cannock Colliery and its environs)
Steve Featherkile said:
After the Frogs were defeated, most of the fleet sought employment in the mines, being stalwart fellows. They took their favorite colors with them.
A case of any job was good as they were just thrown on the scrapheap of life when the wars were finished…one of the traits of the UK Governments of the times
Bruce , brilliant !!!
But them yaller 'uns is forgeries .
Mike Brit
Gee, I used to be a delivery driver for the coal mines in West Virginia. I never saw white equipment, it was all dark orange. Like the Allis Chalmer’s orange mentioned earlier.
David Maynard said:
Gee, I used to be a delivery driver for the coal mines in West Virginia. I never saw white equipment, it was all dark orange. Like the Allis Chalmer’s orange mentioned earlier.
They do things differently in WV and that darker orange will be a better stand-out amongst all the greenery.
You must have had a fine old time on those roads in the hollers.