why not painted?

[willy6]

as a model railroader,i watch trains to get prototype info. question of the day..........i know NS started in 1982 after the merge of NW and SOUTHERN RR. in the year 2003,going on 4 why do i still see rolling stock of fallen flags such as SOUTHERN,NW,SCL,ACL,etc. why are they not painted to the current railroad owner's paint scheme?

[Train Guy 3]

Wish i could help you answer your qeustion but i don't know. Posibly because painting would require forking out cash. Personally i kind of like seeing all those old cars roll by. It's kinda like watching history pass you. Plus all those old cars make great photos to help me weather my models.

[AltonFan]

I think the tendency is to repaint when the cars are overhauled or require major repairs.

I understand that the Chicago & North Western had cars that retained reporting marks for lines that merged with it due to how the cars were financed (equipment trusts) or insured.

But I have to agree with TG3. Until the paint gets very bad, or the graffiti overwhelms it, I'd rather the old paint schemes stuck around for a while.

[Mookie]

You know....Well, you don't so I will tell you!

I read this and went on to the next subject and then had to come back and comment.
Our city buses are so full of advertising, you can hardly find the name of the bus. What about rail cars? Think about it - every square inch of land is used for buildings/houses and anything left over has a billboard on it.

Defray the cost of shipping your items by selling advertising on the sides of rail cars! Railroads could run ads about shipping and being cost effective! And all this before my first cup of coffee. Now all of you come back and shoot me out of the saddle for this idea! (even tho I thought of it, I don't like it!)

Mookie

[CSSHEGEWISCH]

Repainting is usually done when scheduled maintenance comes up or major repair work is required and the equipment will be taken out of service. The only exception might be "patch" renumberings like BNSF, Conrail to CSX & NS, etc. The earliest patch jobs that come to mind are the renumberings to BN from GN, NP, CB&Q and SP&S in 1970. Penn Central did something similar when PRR & NYC renumbered their locomotives prior to the merger.
Some reporting marks were retained due to financing arrangements, Pere Marquette after merger into C&O is a prime example, but C&NW used the reporting marks of some predecessors to provide extra blocks of numbers for certain equipment since they owned the reporting mark anyway. M&StL on unit-train coal hoppers is an example that I have seen.

[edblysard]

Well Mrs Mookie,
Your Idea isnt all that way off, not only did they sell the space on the sides of the cars, the advertisiment you saw was often for the product inside.
Beer, coffee, foods, all shippers who owned their own cars had their company name and product on the side.
You still see this, but not as often or as large.
Cargill corn sweatner, with the big ear of corn and Cargil's name, and ADM, Archer Daniels Midland still do it.
Some plastic companies, Phillips comes to mind, do this also.
But, with trains no longer in the public view, except at crossings, and most cars leased from leasing companies, you rarely see this style of painting anymore.
Stay Frosty,
Ed
(and I typed this without a cup of cofee also)

[Anonymous]

Another reason you do not see cars painted with ads is that often the shippers lease the cars rather than own them. So while the car is hauling something for this company today it may be used by their competitor next year. Can you see Hershey's shipping in an insulated boxcar that advertises Nestle's Crunch bars? They would refuse, and rightfully so.

[CSSHEGEWISCH]

Some cars which are under long-term lease will carry the owner's reporting marks but will be painted for the lessee.

[CShaveRR]

Keep in mind that changing the identity of a car requires more than just paint these days...now it's AEI tags to reprogram or replace, and UMLER records (not to mention internal records) to fill out .

Having said that, every Class 1 railroad has its own way of doing things, from what I've seen. Talking about freight cars here...locomotives are often a different story.

BNSF--repaint and reletter everything into BNSF series.
CN--no relettering, but now striving for a common CN image with lots of repainting going on.
CP--no repainting or relettering (beyond what's necessary), but obtaining some new equipment in both CP and SOO reporting marks.
CSX--reletters everything (except its equipment acquired from Conrail, which keeps its old numbers under NYC reporting marks), and repaints eventually, but no big hurry. More "patch jobs" (new numbers on old cars) than any other railroad.
KCS--nothing relettered or repainted beyond what's necessary.
NS--repainting and relettering everything, including its ex-CR equipment. Lots of leased equipment with patch jobs, though.
UP--reletters nothing (very little, anyway), repaints nothing unless it undergoes a major rebuilding. Used to renumber rebuilt cars into different series (same old reporting marks), but has gotten away from that. Has lots of "patched" cars that are under lease, with CHTT, CTRN, and UP reporting marks.
One would think that companies that go to great legal lengths to protect their corporate image and identy would put on a better face in terms of maintaining the appearance of their equipment. You know what? The recent railroad that did the best job was Conrail!

[Anonymous]

Actually, there's an article I found on the internet about advertising on passenger trains with a picture of a Burger King passenger car. I mentioned it in another thread about this. www.medialifemagazine.com/news2002/may02/may20/1_mon/news5monday.html
I actually had a dream last night about seeing a train of green hopper cars promoting Lorne Calvert (our provincial priemier who won the election we had a couple weeks ago).

As for railroads not painting over cars with the logos of fallen flags on them, I'm actually glad they don't repaint them. I'm a big fallen flag fan myself and it's always a treat when railfanning to see these cars. Also, some cars with the logos of fallen flags on them don't belong to the current merged railroads, some belong to leasing companies.

[TH&B]

I like finding old obscure cars like a light blue ROCK ISLAND logo car relettered for CNW with the EMPLOYEE OWNED logo stencel, relettered again for someone else, covered in layers of graffitti and surface rust in territory far from ROCK territory. Far more interesting than if all cars were steralized for the few class ones left or worse; shrink wrapped advertizing as seen on passenger cars. A freshly painted car is also nice in contrast to the mess.