Train Coloring Pages

• Steam locomotives: a fire heats water in the boiler, and the steam pushes pistons that turn the wheels.
• Diesel locomotives: the diesel engine runs a generator, and electric motors do the work of turning the wheels.
• Electric trains: take power from an overhead wire through a folding arm on the roof called a pantograph.
• High-speed trains: long pointed noses cut through the air at close to 200 miles per hour.
• Freight cars: boxcars, tank cars, hoppers for grain and coal, and flatcars stacked with containers.
• Passenger cars and stations: coaches with rows of windows, dining cars, platforms and signal lights.
• Cabooses: the little crew car that used to ride at the end of every freight train.

Steam engines have the most parts to color, so it helps to know what you're looking at.

• The smokestack at the front lets out smoke and used steam. That's the chuffing sound.
• The boiler is the long round tank that makes up most of the body.
• The cab at the back is where the crew works.
• The big driving wheels are linked by steel rods so they turn together.
• The cowcatcher is the slanted grille at the very front that pushes things off the track.
• The tender is the car right behind the engine. It carries the coal or wood and the water.

Many steam engines were painted black because soot didn't show on it, with red wheels or brass trim for contrast. Diesels and passenger trains come in every color, often with one bold stripe along the side. For the track, color the rails gray, the wooden ties brown and the gravel between them a lighter gray.