In 1922 the League of Nations banned the use of lead paint in interior housing, the US refused to accept this ruling.
http://www.lead.org.au/fs/fst29.htmlBasically Lead paint was believed to be a better, brighter paint then non-lead paint (Mostly do to the affect of lead, it is NOT sometime called "white Silver" for nothing). Lead paint last longer on industrial applications then does non-lead paint, and given that children do NOT generally bite onto such engines and trains not the threat lead paint on toys are.
I would NOT be surprised if the paint is lead based. Lead paint is brighter and last longer then non-lead paint when used in industrial applications. The problems of lead was known as early as 250 bc, and lead paint was baned in France and Austria even before WWI (And effectively banned in the rest of the world except the US for house paint in 1922). The advantages of lead paint was also known for the lead helps the paint stays bright for a longer time period. It was for this later reason the US refused to accept the 1922 League of Nations agreement to ban lead paint (Aided by the desire of the US automotive Industry to switched to leaded gasoline in the 1920s, leaded gasoline permitted higher octane levels and thus more powerful engines).
People forget one of the problems US Auto industry had in the 1970s was how to make their engines as god as they were when lead paint was the norm. Lead had the additional "helpful" feature of sealing up small holes in engines, so the engines ran better, when the lead was outlawed the engines little holes and other gaps could NOT be filled by the mere burning of Leaded gasoline in the engine. The engines for unleaded gasoline had to be made with tighter tolerances to be as good as the engines of the 1960s. Lead has some good points, sealing of engines, sealing of pipes etc. If carefully used lead is more good then bad, but like a lot of "good" things, people have to accept the fact that a little is good, a lot is bad. A little lead in the right place can seal something that can not be sealed as while or as cheaply, a lot of such seals lead to lead in the water which can affect people. I will not go into the bad affects of lead (You can look that up yourself, it is all over the net) but I wanted to point out that I would NOT be surprise this Train's paint is lead based, and why.
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