Most beautiful Streamliner paint scheme Part 2

[Anonymous]

I know there are many more trains to name, but the space is limited. So I had to decide which trains to take and which to leave. Hope you like the choice.

[David_Telesha]

Oopsy.. Didn't see part 1 with the NH choice... Would've liked to see the Comet or East Wind but thats alright...

[jimrice4449]

The problem w/ the choice you listed for the 1947-1952 Olympian Hiawatha is that there were 4 different color schemes in the time span, although all were predominately orange and red (maroon). There was the original maroon lozenge around the windows w/ a maroon letterboard and 2" stripe squigling between them (the "Brooks Stevens scheme"). By the time the 8 bdrm Skytops were delivered in lat e 1949 that scheme had been superceeded by one in which the window band was solid maroon across the full length of the car (w/ a grey roof). Then that scheme was changed to a black or very dark grey roof, followed by the 1950 scheme which ommited the maroon letterboard. I've got models of 4 Hiawathas on my MRR (1942 PM, 1947 and 1950 Olympian Hi and 1953 PM Hi) and each has a different color scheme and there's yet a 5th scheme in that time frame that I don't have a train for!

[CSSHEGEWISCH]

I cast for the Big Sky Blue Empire Builder, preferably with 2 SDP45's leading. TRAINS ran a picture, unfortunately in black and white, in Railroad News Photos in the late 1960's of the first all-Big Sky Blue Empire Builder, and it looked sharp with everything matching.

[Anonymous]

Well, Iheard that the Olympian Hiawatha between 1947-1952 looked like this:
Grey roof
Upper half of the letterboard maroon (with white lettering on it)
Lower half of the letterboard orange
Maroon Windowboard
Orange underbody
And for the 1952-1957 Olympian Hiawatha:
Black roof
Orange letterboard (with maroon lettering on it)
Maroon windowboard
Orange underbody
And last but not least: the 1957-1961 Olympian Hiawatha (in UP yellow):
Grey roof
Red stripe and red lettering
Yellow body
Red stripe and grey on the lower border of the underbody


Your information is new to me. As far as I know there were just 3 different Olympian Hiawatha paint schemes. Are there really 5 different schemes for the Olympian Hiawatha? But what is the PM Hiawatha? You know that I´m talking only about the Olympian Hiawatha......

[jimrice4449]

All of the Milw psgr equipment until it was UPized around 1954 used gold lettering (except the 1950-1954 final predominately orange scheme which used maroon).
The roof color on all from 1942 until about 1949 was a light grey. That was changed to a dark grey or black until 1950 when the roofs went to black. The PM Hi is shorthand for the Afternoon Hiawatha. The 5 color schemes I referred to include both the Olympian Hiawatha and the rest of the fleet. Originally the Oly Hi had an odd ball scheme that was used only on it from it's inception in June of 1947 to sometime before the Pullman built "Lake" series 10-6 sleepers and the 8 bedroom Skytop observations arrived in late 1949 with the same scheme used on the rest of the fleeet (grey roof,
12" maroon letterboard, small orange band , maroon window band and remainder of the side orange (Milwaukee called it yellow, but it's orange). Underbodies post-WWII were black (until the change-over to UP grey and yellow) before that they were brown.
All color changes (including gold lettering) were marked by a very thin (about 1/4") black edging between the two colors. the maroon and orange of the 1939 Hiawatha scheme were separated by a similarly sized silver stripe. The final orange scheme w/o the maroon letterboard and the maroon lettering instead of gold was inaugurated in 1950. It was downhill from there!

[jimrice4449]

One other point on the original (June 1947 to 1949) Olympian Hiawatha color
scheme(s). Pending delivery of the Pullman built Skytop observation and "Lake" series 10-6 cars, the Oly Hi ran w/ 2 heavywieght Pullmans at the rear of the train (a 6 section/6 bedroom car and a 3-2-observation). These cars didn't have the :Brooks Stevens" color scheme of the rest of the train but used the solid maroon window band common to the rest of the fleet.

[daveklepper]

But you didn't inlcude the Electroliner!

[espeefoamer]

SOUTHERN PACIFIC DAYLIGHT.

[KCSfan]

The Illinois Central's Chocolate Brown, Orange and Gold colors. The paint scheme on such streamliners as the City of New Orleans, Panama Limited, City of Miami, Daylight, Green Diamond, and Land 'o Corn.

[Philcal]

Log another vote for the SP Daylight.

[Texas Zepher]

But you didn't inlcude the Electroliner!

Hahaha hehe ha..... at least I presume that was intended as a good joke!.

This is a hard question to answer.  For years and years I was surrounded by passenger trains that were just stainless steel (Santa Fe, CB&Q, D&RGW, RI)....   Then I only saw other schemes in the end of the passenger era when things got simplified - like the Mopac solid dark blue.    sooooo it wasn't until my model railroading interests introduced me to neat things.  The first one I noticed was the GN Big Sky Blue ... that really impressed me.  Suddenly I was sick of stainless steel.  Now I know of many and having to choose is hard.

The original MP Eagle blue & white scheme, the striking NP Raymond Loewy dual green of the North Coast Limited, the stately B&O blue and blue.... 

With much retrospect (and much to my own surprise) I don't think anything truely took my breath away as much as an AT&SF stainless steel train with a red war bonnet on the point!  Amazing.  So I guess if I have to name a train it would be the Super Chief.