A few gems that illustrate the progression of styles of locomotive lithographic art and steam locomotive engine technology from the later part of the early advertising lithograph period to the decline and extinction of the form.

Boston Locomotive Works, ca. 1850. For the early period, it was considered most important to depict the machine in as large a scale as possible. Therefore, the tender was omitted placing the emphasis on the details of the engine construction. The basic illustration is a line image with stipple shading effects. In this example, coloring was applied by hand

Portland Company's  Passenger Engine, 1856. Portrayal of the locomotive was still done in full side elevation with the tender included providing a picture of the complete product. Although on occasion, the engine was still shown standing alone. The basic image here is a line drawing with stipple shading. Solid spot coloring and two tint stones were used for this lithograph.

Hinkley & Williams Works, Boston, ca 1872. This lithograph depicts the final stage of evolution wherein perspective rendering and a naturalistic setting became the style. Here we see the application of an overlay color process called chromolithography. A printing technique used today.