CB&Q freight diesel livery 1960's

[BLS53]

I recall two color schemes on CB&Q Geeps and SD's in the 60's. One was blue and grey, and the other red and grey. There always seemed to be an equal mix of these two liveries, with no transition from one to the other. I assume one scheme was for newer units, and older diesels were never re-painted. Can anyone enlighten me on the time period of the transition? And which was the newer paint scheme?

[Inside Observer]

The Q had gray and black first. In the late 1950s they changed to red and gray. In the late 1960s they went to green , in preperation for the BN merger.

[Stourbridge Lion]

Inside Observer - Welcome to trains.com!

[BLS53]

I also recall that the blue/grey units had two different phrases in script on the long hood. Some had:: "Way of the Zephyrs" and others had: "Everywhere West". Or maybe one was on the left side, and the other on the right. Although it seems strange if they chose to do it that way.

[BLS53]

This was on the Beardstown sub, between Centralia and Paducah., from 1958, up until the merger. Exclusively, SD-7's and 9's. My only other exposure to the Q,  has been through old photos.

[wjstix]

IIRC, CB&Q diesels (and freight cars) in the transition era had "Everywhere West" on one side and "Way of the Zephyrs" on the other. That wasn't that uncommon, Santa Fe boxcars had a slogan for one of their passenger trains (Super Chief, El Capitan etc.) on one side, and a map showing the area the RR covered on the other. Some Union Pacific boxcars had "Serves all the west" on one side and "Route of the Streamliners" on the other.

As noted, CB&Q road-switcher diesels were delivered in the "Blackbird" black and gray in the fifties, Chinese red and gray beginning in 1958.  There were a few painted Cascade Green in the time right before the BN merger.

 None that I know of were blue and gray. In 1967 Great Northern began using the "Big Sky Blue" scheme which was a sky blue body and dark gray roof and upper body, with a large white stripe separating the two. Maybe sometime soon after the 1970 merger you saw some of these on former CB&W lines with the Great Northern lettering removed?? They often just had "BN" and the new BN road number stencilled on the cab.

[BLS53]

 I suppose it was black, not blue. It was a mix of grey and a darker color. They weren't black like the IC diesels of the time. I saw them side by side many times, and the IC and Q units weren't the same shade of black, if there is such a thing. The Q units scheme is hard to describe, because there were different colors and lettering all over everywhere. Not to mention, strange headlight arrangements, including a red beacon, I never saw used.

 

[wjstix]

The "blackbird" and later Chinese red schemes were/are both very well known. Many pics are available on the web and in books showing them, and many models are or have been made in the two schemes.

These are Chuck Zeiler pics posted on the Burlington Route Historical Societies "Photo Archives" section under "Locomotives":

[txtrain59]

These units were Black and Grey with a Red pin-stripe. The Q never wore Blue paint.

[Nebraskafan]

The change from black and gray to red and gray began in 1959, both with new power, such as the SD24s, and repaints. A Geep was displayed in the new colors in May 1959 at the Lincoln, NE Centennial. About this time the nose stripes on the E units were changed from black to red. Switchers never got the red, except for one on the Fort Worth & Denver, but in 1969 a simplified scheme was adopted for switchers with white stripes used. Of course the F units never got the new colors, although in the mid-1960s Athearn did market HO F units in Q red and gray--and passenger cars too. In mid-1968 the first experimental pre-Burlington Northern scheme appeared, green and white, although BN would use a different scheme when it finally became a reality in March 1970. They repainted one GP40 as I recall and new SD45s and some GEs were delivered in green and white in 1969.