Prototype information for the modeler

Well the CNW's "400" last ran in 1963, so I'm sure that slogan wasn't applied after that. It may have not been added to new engines or repaints for a while before that though...seems to me the M-St.L units that got repainted in 1960-61 didn't have the slogans(??)

The striping seems to have kinda been phased out. Some had a simplified striping into the seventies...it only had one or two stripes coming down from the top, kinda like chevrons (like a US private's or corporal's stripes, only upside down). See the (Baldwin?) on the right.

The Omaha Road (C.St.P.M.& O.) seemed to have quite a few wood bay window cabooses. The CNW proper had some too but I think they didn't predominate until they started getting steel ones in the sixties.

I have seen a photo taken in the very early 1970s of a switcher that still had its slogan on the side, but the slogan stopped being applied well before the 400 was discontinued and was pretty rarely seen by the mid 1960s.  There were still some wood cabooses in the early 1960s on MOW trains and I have to think the 1950s saw more of them in regular service, the CNW being so cheap and all.  I do think they got their first steel bay window cabooses in the 1950s.

I have photos taken in the 1980s (of older power) that showed the reduced chevron striping mentioned above.  I'd hazard a guess of about 1960 for when they started to cut back on the chevrons.  An EMD ad in Railway Age from 1957 shows the full striping on new (I think) GP18s.

Dave Nelson

Here is a CNW "them song."  Click on to listen.

http://www.stumbleaudio.com/#joeprice3/14

wjstix:

Well the CNW's "400" last ran in 1963, so I'm sure that slogan wasn't applied after that. It may have not been added to new engines or repaints for a while before that though...seems to me the M-St.L units that got repainted in 1960-61 didn't have the slogans(??)

The striping seems to have kinda been phased out. Some had a simplified striping into the seventies...it only had one or two stripes coming down from the top, kinda like chevrons (like a US private's or corporal's stripes, only upside down). See the (Baldwin?) on the right.

The Omaha Road (C.St.P.M.& O.) seemed to have quite a few wood bay window cabooses. The CNW proper had some too but I think they didn't predominate until they started getting steel ones in the sixties.

The CNW phased out the "Route of the 400s" lettering by 1956- the GP9s delivered in 1957 (1725-1773)came with single nose chevrons and no "400" lettering on the flanks. The last series of units to arrive with full chevrons and "400" lettering were the H16-66s delivered in 1956 in number series 1901-1906. (Which ironically also said "Route of the Streamliners"- which had stopped running via CNW the previous fall)  The GP18s delivered in 1960 were originally delivered with single stripe chevrons- when the first GP30s arrived in 1962 the plain yellow/green was the standard, at the same time ex-L&M and M&StL units were repainted into the plain scheme (MSTL units got MSTL sublettering on the cabs).

The CNW's first steel bay window cabooses from International Car in Kent, Ohio in 1955- they were bright red with yellow railings. The lettering was white and they had black/white CNW heralds on the sides. Prior to that the CNW's caboose fleet was mostly wooden and steel cupola cabooses and some wooden drovers style cabooses.