NYC Steamer Oval Colors

I’ve seen several color photos and a few paintings of various NYC steam locomotives with different colored backgrounds in the oval on their front ends. Some have black backgrounds, some red, and some blue! It seems the paintings do not always match the color photos when it comes to the oval’s background color for the same type locomotive! What is the correct background color for the oval on the front of the various NYC steamers that had them, such as the Hudson (J-3 standard & streamlined [20th Century & ESE], Mohawk (L-4), and Niagara? I have ordered an H.O. Broadway Limited Imports (BLI) NYC Niagara, and the photo of the model on their Web site shows a bright blue background on the oval. It also has a blue background behind the number on the plate above the oval. Are these correct colors for the Niagara? All the color photos I’ve seen of Niagara’s show the oval and number plate background colors to be black. I’d like to know about the other locomotives too because I have H.O. models of them, and would like to ensure the oval (and number plate) background colors are accurate. I would really appreciate your input. Thanks very much.

I remember seeing a number plate and oval from a 6000 Niagara in an office at 466 Lexington Avenue in the 1960's and the background was definitely blue (both number and oval backgrounds).

In addition, I once owned a number plate from 5303 (J-1d) which had an oval added - by the shop at Beech Gove as a presentation item. This was done in or about 1957 and the oval was cast aluminum with a blue background. The number plate background was black.

This question came up SOMEWHERE and I cannot remember
where or what the definitive answer was!
For some reason I think it was black on prewar and blue
during or just after the war.
RED was never used on steam .

I could be right or wrong here, time for one of the
old timers to chime in.

I believe the standard background color of the ovals on the steamers was black. The backgrounds were painted blue only on locomotives assigned to service on the 20th Century Limited. All ten of the Dreyfuss Hudsons started out with blue ovals. Other J3a Hudsons that were in 20th Century Service had blue ovals as well. This would also explain why Niagara 6000 had a blue oval. The streamlined ESE Hudsons had red ovals. I have only seen one instance where red was used on a non-streamlined steamer, and that was a "special paint job" on engine 9401, P&LE A2a Berkshire. The article in Classic Trains Magazine clearly indicates that this was done special and the engine was spruced up for a train full of RR executives.