Train Coloring Pages
15 free printable pages, ready to download and print.
Free printable train coloring pages featuring steam locomotives, bullet trains, subway cars, model railways, and the Orient Express.
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Trains split into two eras that need completely different treatment. A steam locomotive is black iron, brass fittings, red wheels and a great deal of visible working machinery, rods, pistons, rivets. A bullet train is a single smooth painted surface with almost no detail at all. These 15 train coloring pages cover both ends, plus freight, a Victorian station and a mountain cog railway. Every design downloads as a free printable PDF sized for US Letter paper.
Steam Locomotive Chugging Through Mountain Scenery and Modern Bullet Train Speeding Past at High Speed are the two poles of the set. Cartoon Steam Engine Train With a Happy Face is the one for the youngest children. Old-Fashioned Passenger Train at a Victorian Station and Mountain Cog Railway Climbing Steep Tracks carry the most detail.
Steam is the detail worth spending time on. It is not a white cloud with an edge, it is thickest and brightest right at the funnel and dissipates as it drifts back over the carriages. Leave it as bare paper near the stack, add the lightest gray along its underside as it moves back, and let it break up completely before it reaches the edge of the page.
The middle of the set is where the more unusual subjects sit. Vintage Orient Express Train With an Elegant Dining Car and Circus Train With Animals Looking Out the Windows both put the interest inside the carriages rather than on the locomotive. Mine Cart Racing Through a Torch-Lit Tunnel and Subway Train in an Underground City Tunnel are the two enclosed scenes, and both need a dark surround before any of the lighting reads. Monorail Gliding Above a Futuristic City, Model Railway Set With a Miniature Village and Train Crossing a Dramatic River Bridge Gorge round out the detailed end of the set.
More in this direction: Transportation, Ships and Aircraft.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you color steam and smoke?
Start with untouched paper at the funnel and let it fade. Steam is densest and brightest as it leaves the stack, so keep that area pure white, then add the palest gray along the underside of the plume as it drifts backwards, letting the shape become looser and more broken further from the engine. A hard-edged white blob is the usual mistake.
What colors were steam locomotives?
Predominantly black or very dark green bodywork, with polished brass or copper on the dome, whistle and fittings, red or dark red wheels and connecting rods, and a lot of soot. Named express engines were often more elaborate, deep green, maroon or blue with gold lining, so a brighter locomotive is historically defensible.
What is a cog railway?
A rack railway, which uses a toothed rail laid between the running rails and a matching cogwheel under the locomotive to climb gradients far too steep for ordinary adhesion. They are used on mountain lines, Switzerland has many, and the Mount Washington Cog Railway in New Hampshire opened in 1869.
Which train pages suit young children?
The cartoon steam engine with a face is the simplest and works from about age three. The bullet train is also very approachable, since the body is one long smooth shape. The Victorian station and the cog railway have far more detail and suit ages eight and up.