Railways in art

[Ali Smith]

I agree that the red wheels give the engines a Germanic look, as do the smoke deflectors, particularly the ones on the engine on the turntable which are very reminiscent of the "German" smoke deflectors fitted to A3s by BR. The cowcatchers, as you say, contradict this. Perhaps a former German colony in Africa would fit? This is mere surmise based on a couple of minutes spent looking and thinking. I am no expert on either German or African railways. I look forward to somebody coming up with a more informed suggestion in due course.

Ali

[Hiawatha]

To me the engines don't look particularly German. I would rather put them more somewhere East – maybe Soviet or Chinese (or Japanese but I don't think so)?

The cage on the tender is really unusual and I have not seen anything like this before. A condensing tender? I haven't found anything close.