Here's a little extra color for your Thursday morning...
An appreciation for railroads and fallen flags has inspired high school artist August VanCleave of Lincoln, Nebraska to design a series of BNSF predecessor locomotive drawings, representing the families of Santa Fe, Burlington Northern, and St. Louis – San Francisco Railway. August, a 16 year old 11th grader at Lincoln Southeast High School has had an interest in railroads since he was a young child.
“I’ve enjoyed trains throughout my entire life, mainly because of my grandfather’s employment with BNSF,” August said. “I always enjoyed studying my grandfather’s vast collection of HO Scale locomotives.”
Augusts’ grandfather, Kevin Piper, a 30+-year career locomotive engineer and rail enthusiast also residing in Lincoln, has worked for the Elgin, Joliet and Eastern, Chicago & North Western, Chicago Rail Link, Burlington Northern, and BNSF Railway.
In studying the unique paint schemes associated with fallen flags on his grandfather’s model railroad, August began drawing these schemes on modern-day GE locomotives last winter to commemorate BNSF Railway’s 20 anniversary in 2015.
“Heritage locomotives have always been an interest. The Union Pacific heritage locomotives were just coming out when I was a little kid,” August said. “Now, we have Norfolk Southern’s heritage locomotives, too.”
Initially, August designed 11 General Electric ES44C4 drawings featuring popular railroads such as Burlington Northern, Frisco, Santa Fe, and more. August shared his work with followers on Facebook, and later, started offering 11 x 14 posters for a small cost. As his work circulated throughout social media receiving significant amount of support, August was requested to share Electro-Motive renderings of the predecessor schemes, as well as expanded railroads to incorporate more of the BNSF family.
In his latest BNSF poster, August featured SD70ACe renderings of Burlington Northern, Santa Fe, Frisco, Great Northern Railway, Chicago, Burlington and Quincy, Northern Pacific Railway, Spokane, Portland and Seattle, and the Quanah, Acme and Pacific Railway. Different schemes of the same railroads were also included to highlight the different eras of paint schemes displayed on the predecessor routes.
While many have encouraged August to submit his drawings to BNSF Railway for consideration, he remains optimistic as to whether or not railroad management would actually consider such an undertaking. Proposed heritage locomotives are not the only railroad item of interest. August recently completed a drawing of three Rock Island GE U30C’s leading a grain train through Sheffield interlocking in Kansas City. The drawing is inspired from a 1970s photo from photographer Joe Blackwell.
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