I just thought that it would be fun to see what people come up with, so here is my idea. Nominations (opinions) about what railroads you would nominate for the following awards:
-Best Merger
-Worst Merger
-Best Paint Scheme
-Worst Paint Scheme
If you have ideas for any more awards, feel free to add them!
The Beaverton, Fanno Creek & Bull Mountain Railroad
"Ruby Line Service"
Mine:
Best Merger: Norfolk Southern (Two railroads wiht similar regions, operating patterns and survival for more than 30 years.)
OK, as long as this includes past or present....
Best Merger, the merging and aquisition of the components that created the New York Central System, the "Water Level Route" from New York to Chicago. OK, there WAS Albany Hill where some trains needed a push, but almost no grades to speak of otherwise for 950 miles.
Worst Merger, The Penn Central. It's been described as two drowning men clinging to each other trying to stay afloat. Add two radically diffferent corporate cultures (among other things) to just make things worse and there's no way the company could survive.
Best Paint Scheme, the Pennsylvania Railroads diesel scheme of Tuscan Red with gold "cats whisker" stripes. When Norfolk-Southern did their Heritage Diesel fleet several years ago I was amazed at how well those vintage paint schemes going back to the 50's worked on modern day diesel units. In my opinion the PRR scheme looked the best, although they were all pretty darn impressive.
Worst Paint Scheme, Penn-Central basic black. Soulless, colorless, uninspired and cheap. I'm reminded of what a rail writer said about the PC, "A marriage made in Hell, and the bride wore black!"
Anyway, those are my choices. If anyone wants to dispute them I certainly won't mind.
Great choices there Firelock76.
Worst Merger- Well of course Penn Central by a mile. I would like to mention "all of them". Losing proud and independent railroads is just a very sad thing and not a really good thing because it sets of a chain of reactions that must happen to counter it.
Best Merger- The reciprocal of the above...none of them. But...Ok..how about CN/IC ...maybe B&O, C&O, WM into Chessie. No, I take that back.
Best Paint Scheme- Oh boy..lots of good ones. If it's one thing the railroads did very well ( for the most part anyway) it was their corporate identity. Canadian Pacific grey and maroon with the script lettering with a qualifier...it has to be clean! Milwaukee Road Hiawatha's were outstanding.
Worst Paint scheme- Amtrak, especially the pointless arrow. Special mention to Penn Central, especially CR paint overs, and VIA Rail. What's with government anyway? Never did warm to CSX..the railroad afraid to say what they are. Yes I Know, Chesapeake/Seaboard multiplied but it sucks.
One more mention- One of the best paint schemes collapsed into one of the absolute worst virtually overnight...Southern Pacific Black Widow becoming scarlet and grey 'bloody nose' ...shockingly real bad.
Thank you Miningman! Those are some pretty good choices you made as well. And yes, the CPR's grey and maroon was classic. I'll tell you their "Royal Hudsons" were stunners as well. Canadian 'roads and their equipment always struck me as a very classy blend of the British and American styles.
Best Merger: Norfolk Southern.
Worst Merger: The merger that never was. Jumping the gun in anticipation and wasting money, the SP/SF. At least the other mergers existed before going belly up.
Best Paint: Wow tough one. E units in the 50's, take your choice.
Worst Paint: That poor GG1 Conrail painted for the BiCentennial. Honorable mention, those poor E units twenty years later...all looking like bland PC's.
Good one with SP/SF...even the model railroad manufacturers came out with the paint schemes, in brass yet!
Along that vein how about UP/Rock Island...the one patient died during the generational long wait for approval.
K4sPRRWorst Paint: That poor GG1 Conrail painted for the BiCentennial.
(I'd have posted the Greatest Railfan Picture Ever here if I had the rights to it; 4800 in Bicentennial paint at Trenton pulling Reading MUs with pans up for power. If you'd done this on a model railroad people would razz you unmercifully; but here it was, in reality...)
As a little 'quiz lite' (as this is still outside the scope of the 'official' quizzes) this locomotive was famous for another reason involving paint. What was it?
Overmod K4sPRR Worst Paint: That poor GG1 Conrail painted for the BiCentennial. (I'd have posted the Greatest Railfan Picture Ever here if I had the rights to it; 4800 in Bicentennial paint at Trenton pulling Reading MUs with pans up for power. If you'd done this on a model railroad people would razz you unmercifully; but here it was, in reality...) As a little 'quiz lite' (as this is still outside the scope of the 'official' quizzes) this locomotive was famous for another reason involving paint. What was it?
K4sPRR Worst Paint: That poor GG1 Conrail painted for the BiCentennial.
It was the only GG1 to wear Conrail blue paint.
Cheeses, Mary and Joseph, that's one of the most hideous things I've ever seen, a Bicentennial paint scheme done by someone who must have been dropping "acid."
The Bicentennial scheme the poor, broken-down, hanging-on-by-its-fingernails Susquehanna had on its RS-1 puts that Conrail job to shame!
K4sPRRIt was the only GG1 to wear Conrail blue paint.
Got to luv Felix...so surreal. 7:30 am until 8 every Saturday morning back home when I was 7 or something. Followed by Rough and Ready.
Course' it would be different wherever the reader is from but yah ...I still use the expression righty-o all the time.
Many of the bicentennial paint schemes were terrible really but Government entities could not run a hot dog stand. Thank God real railroaders were involved.
Speaking of bicens, I realize that I never nominated a worst paint scheme myself for the awards:
The Kansas City Southern Bicen. I understand that it had some good intentions but this thing is ugly...
(http://www.railpictures.net/photo/520324/)
Never seen this before...are you kidding me!? How?..... Speechless
Best Paint Scheme: ATSF red and silver "War Bonnet" F3 and F7 Diesels... the only thing that ever made a Diesel worth looking at or giving a 2nd thought (or at least a non-disparaging thought!).
Semper Vaporo
Pkgs.
For worst merger, it seems that people so far have interpretted this in two different ways (and my nominations for both):
Worst planned merger: Penn Central
Merger with the greatest negative impact on railfanning: Conrail. I know this was before my day, but it seems like a lot of fascinating companies vanished when CR came into being.
For best pain scheme:
I agree, that the warbonnet looks pretty sharp, but I honestly think that Cascade Green is one of my favoirtes. BN operated along river banks, in deserts, forests, and snowy passes and it looked good in all of those. Good fit for the railroad and its terrain. I guess it did havea habit of blending into said scenery though [:-/]
For my taste --
Best Paint Scheme: Tie between SP's Daylight and GN's Big Sky Blue.
KBCpresident For worst merger, it seems that people so far have interpretted this in two different ways (and my nominations for both): Worst planned merger: Penn Central Merger with the greatest negative impact on railfanning: Conrail. I know this was before my day, but it seems like a lot of fascinating companies vanished when CR came into being.
I don't know, now it seems Conrail has it's own fans nostalgic for "Big Blue." You just never know, do you?
And all those other companies that vanished into Conrail? Well, it was either that or total oblivion. Just the way it was.
Dragoman- Yah, the big sky blue was nice but blink and you missed it. Looked grest on the passenger equipment. Never really had A chance.
Firelock76- ...on the other hand the Conrail blue...fuggetaboutit..a herd of PC black looked better than that.
I have to second Semper Vaporo's choice of the Santa Fe "Warbonnet," truly a classic diesel paint scheme.
I got me to thinking about it's contemporary cab unit, the New York Central's grey with lightning stripes. It strikes me both paint schemes mirrored their parts of the country perfectly.
The New York Central's: Grey flannel, very serious, very businesslike, very Wall Street and New York City.
The Santa Fe's "Warbonnet": Pure Hollywood!
Hate to disagree with you Miningman, but even though Conrails basic blue was pretty plain and uninspired it was a lot better than PC's funereal black.
Oh, and that KCS monstrosity looks like a popcorn stand mated with a cotton-candy kiosk!
Best merger - 1960's Soo Line Railroad from MStP&SSM (Old Soo), WC and DSS&A. Whatever happened there was very impressive.
Firelock 76- likely you are right about Conrail vs Penn Central "look". My opinion is based on a number of brass model GE locos along with a number of plastic and then substituting Conrail locos in the same scene...a diesel servicing facility, all in N Scale. The Penn Central looks "tougher", the Conrail blue looks like it needs help. In the real world it probably didn't look that way. Black anything, autos, suits, locomotives need to be real clean to look good. The mating worms don't help either.
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder anyway. That KCS bicentennial could not even be photoshopped to look that bad. No one would believe you.
Best merger: N&W + Virginian, a parallel merger that made sense and really worked.
Worst merger: Penn Central
Best paint job: KCS Southern Belle or IHB lightning stripe.
Worst paint job: Penn Central black. N&W and original IC were also basic black but N&W used yellow lettering and IC had white trim striping.
The old Lehigh and New England had a pretty good looking basic black with white striping scheme, set off by the "fried egg" herald on the nose.
The colors reflected what the 'road hauled, coal and cement, mostly.
Firelock76 The old Lehigh and New England had a pretty good looking basic black with white striping scheme, set off by the "fried egg" herald on the nose.
As with the 'dark' lightning-stripe NYC variant, 'basic black with white striping' doesn't really give the scheme justice:
They were only 12 years old when the railroad closed!
L&NE was notable for a particular reason: they were owned by a coal company, and when that company saw revenues fall below critical, the board of directors made the strategic decision to shut down the railroad as a capital asset, and leave the 'common carrier' aspects to CNJ. There was no long-pathetic slide -- they went out with class.
I was aware of the FAs just about the time they were gone, like so much else I 'just missed' by being a tad too young.
MiningmanNever seen this before...are you kidding me!? How?..... Speechless
At least that was designed by kids. How about when the guys who design wraps for those lawn-service trucks get a larger commission...
http://www.trainweb.com/mpg/year1999/07/1999g30r/mvc-690v.mpg
Overmod, see if you can find a color shot of one of those L&NE ALCOS when they were all shiny and brand new, it really was a pretty striking paint scheme.
However, and it probably had something to do with the paint used, that color scheme didn't age well at all, most were pretty ratty looking when the 'road shut down.
Don't remember where I read this, but supposedly the L&NE was the only part of the Lehigh Coal and Navigation company that was making any money at the end with the parent company bleeding off the profits to keep all the other divisions aloat, they did haul other things besides coal and cement, but that didn't make any difference to the parent company, they just packed it all in and sold off the assets.
Nice to seem some "action" over here on the "Classic Trains" site, usually there's nothing going on over here.
Firelock76However, and it probably had something to do with the paint used, that color scheme didn't age well at all, most were pretty ratty looking when the 'road shut down.
I think it was the cement dust that did that.
If I recall correctly, the parent company made a locally famous candy* well into the 1980s, and when they sold that off it was finally time to 'call it quits'.
*You can keep your wine snobbery and caviar snobbery - I confess to being delighted to find there was chocolate-covered-cherry snobbery ... look for the liquid center instead of that pasty, slimy whitish stuff in lesser confections.
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