Should BNSF bring back the Warbonnet and the Santa Fe name???

[Murphy Siding]

     I suppose, there will come a day, when railfans lament the good old days, when BNSF had those spiffy orange units with swooshes.  They'll also complain about the current day units, all painted soot black, with the road name *MEGA-Rail*, spray painted on the side.

  All Right!

It's the icons, I tell ya.  There are none with rolling eyes, or tounge-in-cheek.

Edited to note, that I can't tell if your "All Right!" means or ?

basic black with different colors of pin striping.  Very classy.  End of ugh orange. 

  Next thing you know, you'll want a horse on it too!

  Back to "All Right!"

And me back to

[eolafan]

     I suppose, there will come a day, when railfans lament the good old days, when BNSF had those spiffy orange units with swooshes.  They'll also complain about the current day units, all painted soot black, with the road name *MEGA-Rail*, spray painted on the side.

  All Right!

An old saying (can't remember who to attribute it to) goes something like..."YOU CAN'T PLEASE ALL THE PEOPLE ALL OF THE TIME".

[Mookie]

     I suppose, there will come a day, when railfans lament the good old days, when BNSF had those spiffy orange units with swooshes.  They'll also complain about the current day units, all painted soot black, with the road name *MEGA-Rail*, spray painted on the side.

  All Right!

It's the icons, I tell ya.  There are none with rolling eyes, or tounge-in-cheek.

Edited to note, that I can't tell if your "All Right!" means or ?

basic black with different colors of pin striping.  Very classy.  End of ugh orange. 

  Next thing you know, you'll want a horse on it too!

  Back to "All Right!"

[Murphy Siding]

     I suppose, there will come a day, when railfans lament the good old days, when BNSF had those spiffy orange units with swooshes.  They'll also complain about the current day units, all painted soot black, with the road name *MEGA-Rail*, spray painted on the side.

  All Right!

It's the icons, I tell ya.  There are none with rolling eyes, or tounge-in-cheek.

Edited to note, that I can't tell if your "All Right!" means or ?

basic black with different colors of pin striping.  Very classy.  End of ugh orange. 

  Next thing you know, you'll want a horse on it too!

[SchemerBob]

This brings me to a point about the BNSF orange fading. While there are some engines that have faded to almost yellow, they seem to be few and far between. I don't know whether the "faded" orange is really faded at all - when compared to the bright, new units, it does look faded, but most of the time it doesn't look like it's fading into a completely different color, just a ligher shade of orange. Many of the remaining warbonnets still look good, but some, like #846 posted above, have faded almost to pink. To me, this isn't a very good image for any railroad, and this unit is due for a repaint. I'm afraid no matter how you try, there's no way you can protect the warbonnet paint on all of the engines. They'll all be repainted one of these days. But, seeing there are still many warbonnets that do look great, this will still be a long ways down the road.

[zardoz]

Is this the illustrious Warbonnet that so many have fond memories of?...

BNSF (ex-Santa Fe) C40-8W no. 846 in Galesburg, IL December 9, 2006.  © Erik Bergstrom

One reader's opinion: BN's Executive cream & green scheme is holding up a LOT better.

Bergie

Aye, she's a beauty, alright!

[Mookie]

     I suppose, there will come a day, when railfans lament the good old days, when BNSF had those spiffy orange units with swooshes.  They'll also complain about the current day units, all painted soot black, with the road name *MEGA-Rail*, spray painted on the side.

  All Right!

It's the icons, I tell ya.  There are none with rolling eyes, or tounge-in-cheek.

Edited to note, that I can't tell if your "All Right!" means or ?

basic black with different colors of pin striping.  Very classy.  End of ugh orange. 

[Bergie]

Is this the illustrious Warbonnet that so many have fond memories of?...

BNSF (ex-Santa Fe) C40-8W no. 846 in Galesburg, IL December 9, 2006.  © Erik Bergstrom

One reader's opinion: BN's Executive cream & green scheme is holding up a LOT better.

Bergie

[KCSfan]

Wishing for a return to the name, Santa Fe, and the Warbonnet paint is like wishing they will put steam locomotives back on the head end of their trains. IT AIN'T GONNA HAPPEN! Just like cabooses and iced reefers, these are history now and they only exist in our memories, in photos and on model railroads. Change is inevitable and whether any of us agree or not it's called progress. Quit whining about such trivia and just be thankful that the trains are still running and the railroads are over the malaise they suffered in the 1960's to 80's.

Mark

[al-in-chgo]

Speaking as an English Modeller of American Railroads (regretably still in planning) I think it would add great interest if all the names and logos of the railroads now confined to history were to be acknowledged by the successor railroad companies be it only by the name and the  decal on the side of a locomotive     As a stop-gap to getting the railroad corporations to honour and remember their own heritage why not lobby the Federal Government to have the Federally funded Amtrak have some of it's passenger trains painted in the same colours of the 'Fallen Flags' over whose lines it now runs   I know I digress but in my opinion one of the saddest loss to 'colourful' railroading was the prohibition of the Billboard Boxcar   My thought is that the ban could be un-constitutional as it prohibits free speech, even if it is only saying 'Buy Acme Soap', and free speech is guarenteed by one of the amendments to your constitution   Now that really would brighten up watching a freight train thundering by 

  If you want to keep the Railroads   Ship it by Rail 

Who or what prohibited the Billboard Boxcar? Hey, if a truck can drive around city streets with a changing panel, why can't a railroad do the same? Business, is business, is business.  "Grafitti artists" and I use that term disparagingly shouldn't have the sole and exclusive franchise for the boxcar canvass. 

It does seem strange, in this day and age where everything from a messenger bike to a VW to rapid transit rolling-stock can be "wrapped" in mylar advertising, that the big RR's haven't thought to do the same  --  on their own behalf or that of other firms, as advertising.  - al

 

[paulcap]

 HELLO,BNSF SHOULD STAY WITH THE PRESENT PAINT SCHEME, BUT THEY MIGHT BRING OUT SOME UNITS IN A HERITAGE TYPE SCHEME LIKE THE UP HAS.

[oltmannd]

Here is my 2 cents, for whatever its worth. I will try to be fair on both sides.  I am an employee of the company, a lifelong ATSF fan who never had much interest or a liking of the BN. I had an uncle who worked for BN and hated them. Yrs ago I was a shipper on ATSF and thought, for the most part, they were a fair transportation company to do business with. However, when BN bought out the Santa Fe in 1995, that was the end of both railroads as we knew it and the creation of a new one--like it or not. The new owners of the rr could have simply dropped the SF name all together &  operate the merged system as BN but they didn't. As much as we all liked the Warbonnet, it  that belonged to ATSF. It was in the ATSF era and proudly was a display of that great rr when it was an active carrier. No, the Warbonnet was a symbol of ATSF, not BNSF. It was a great part of rr history for so many yrs and thankfully was brought back for the final few yrs before the merger but it needs to put to rest but not forgotten by any means. BNSF needs to develop its own heritage & public culture. Will it be able to hold a candle to the old SF? probably not but atleast give it a chance.

That's exactly what I read in "Leaders Count".  Krebs and Rose knew (and know) that the only way they were going to get the BN and ATSF guys to row the boat in the same direction was to get them to leave their past corp culture behind. 

As an ex-Con at NS, I can certainly understand and empathize.

[Murphy Siding]

     I suppose, there will come a day, when railfans lament the good old days, when BNSF had those spiffy orange units with swooshes.  They'll also complain about the current day units, all painted soot black, with the road name *MEGA-Rail*, spray painted on the side.

  All Right!

It's the icons, I tell ya.  There are none with rolling eyes, or tounge-in-cheek.

Edited to note, that I can't tell if your "All Right!" means or ?

[SFbrkmn]

Here is my 2 cents, for whatever its worth. I will try to be fair on both sides.  I am an employee of the company, a lifelong ATSF fan who never had much interest or a liking of the BN. I had an uncle who worked for BN and hated them. Yrs ago I was a shipper on ATSF and thought, for the most part, they were a fair transportation company to do business with. However, when BN bought out the Santa Fe in 1995, that was the end of both railroads as we knew it and the creation of a new one--like it or not. The new owners of the rr could have simply dropped the SF name all together &  operate the merged system as BN but they didn't. As much as we all liked the Warbonnet, it  that belonged to ATSF. It was in the ATSF era and proudly was a display of that great rr when it was an active carrier. No, the Warbonnet was a symbol of ATSF, not BNSF. It was a great part of rr history for so many yrs and thankfully was brought back for the final few yrs before the merger but it needs to put to rest but not forgotten by any means. BNSF needs to develop its own heritage & public culture. Will it be able to hold a candle to the old SF? probably not but atleast give it a chance.

[Mookie]

     I suppose, there will come a day, when railfans lament the good old days, when BNSF had those spiffy orange units with swooshes.  They'll also complain about the current day units, all painted soot black, with the road name *MEGA-Rail*, spray painted on the side.

  All Right!

[Murphy Siding]

     I suppose, there will come a day, when railfans lament the good old days, when BNSF had those spiffy orange units with swooshes.  They'll also complain about the current day units, all painted soot black, with the road name *MEGA-Rail*, spray painted on the side.

[Prairietype]

Speaking as an English Modeller of American Railroads (regretably still in planning) I think it would add great interest if all the names and logos of the railroads now confined to history were to be acknowledged by the successor railroad companies be it only by the name and the  decal on the side of a locomotive     As a stop-gap to getting the railroad corporations to honour and remember their own heritage why not lobby the Federal Government to have the Federally funded Amtrak have some of it's passenger trains painted in the same colours of the 'Fallen Flags' over whose lines it now runs   I know I digress but in my opinion one of the saddest loss to 'colourful' railroading was the prohibition of the Billboard Boxcar   My thought is that the ban could be un-constitutional as it prohibits free speech, even if it is only saying 'Buy Acme Soap', and free speech is guarenteed by one of the amendments to your constitution   Now that really would brighten up watching a freight train thundering by 

  If you want to keep the Railroads   Ship it by Rail 

Who or what prohibited the Billboard Boxcar? Hey, if a truck can drive around city streets with a changing panel, why can't a railroad do the same? Business, is business, is business.  "Grafitti artists" and I use that term disparagingly shouldn't have the sole and exclusive franchise for the boxcar canvass. 

[Anonymous]

Speaking as an English Modeller of American Railroads (regretably still in planning) I think it would add great interest if all the names and logos of the railroads now confined to history were to be acknowledged by the successor railroad companies be it only by the name and the  decal on the side of a locomotive     As a stop-gap to getting the railroad corporations to honour and remember their own heritage why not lobby the Federal Government to have the Federally funded Amtrak have some of it's passenger trains painted in the same colours of the 'Fallen Flags' over whose lines it now runs   I know I digress but in my opinion one of the saddest loss to 'colourful' railroading was the prohibition of the Billboard Boxcar   My thought is that the ban could be un-constitutional as it prohibits free speech, even if it is only saying 'Buy Acme Soap', and free speech is guarenteed by one of the amendments to your constitution   Now that really would brighten up watching a freight train thundering by 

  If you want to keep the Railroads   Ship it by Rail 

[Prairietype]

My take on this dicusssion recognizes the nostalgia and importance of it in our collective souls.  It's amazing how, once you've lost something, you can often appreciate it more than when it was common-we take things for granted.

I miss the Great Northern, Wabash and 20th Century Ltd. livery and many others.

When Burlington Northern changed their colors in the early 90's', I didn't take to it too well, but got use to it.  The current BNSF colors, when I first some them seemed like over-dazzle, but now-well, it's pretty special to me. It may be inevitable that it will some day pass from the scene.  I loved the warbonnet-I have the classic Lionel 2343 and the 1959 red stripe 2500's running in my basement to prove it.

Those who say "those days are dead and gone, get over it" are right. What gets me, and I don't know who holds sway over cultural privilege, is why Amtrak, with it's terrible name, and uninspired paint scheme, doesn't paint it's trains the colors of the classic trains that ran in the US years ago. I know that perhaps the actual names of railroads (even though long gone) may still have ownership rights held be some enity, but the paint? Does anyone know? 

Amtrak as a name is as boring as it's paint.  Red, White and Blue has it's place in our culture, but on something other than a train. And since Amtrak does names its trains in the fashion of fallen flag consists, maybe they should paint them as such. It would also be good advertisement.

Ok, lastly, and I know this is mean spirited, but there are a lot of top corporate types who apparently aren't hired for their brains, nor their artistic, aesthetic capacities. Look at at crappy examples of everything from some cars, to some buildings, to corporate names, the current acronym fetish, and I'll rest my case.

 

 

 

[zugmann]

Proctor and Gamble has to fight for shelf space and to catch the consumer's eye.  The railroads don't work that way.  ABC Inc. ain't gonna care what color the engines are - just as long as they get their stuff moved the quickest and/or the cheapest... 

The Santa Fe and the warbonnet are dead.  Get over it.

 

 

First,  The Sante Fe name was and is the MOST recognized railroad name in the WORLD!Second, It was a BN takeover and they showed who was the boss.  There was no respectfor the greatest name in railroading.  Also the only railroad to use a cross in their symbol. Just the way it goes.  Corporate power throwing away one of the greatest know product names.  You would never see Proctor&Gamble doing such a thing.

[espeefoamer]

If Union Pacific can merge with a half dozen (or so) railroads and still call itself Union Pacific,why can't Santa Fe merge with one railroad (Burlingtoon Northern) and still call itself Santa Fe?

WARBONNET FOREVER!

[Murphy Siding]

First,  The Sante Fe name was and is the MOST recognized railroad name in the WORLD!Second, It was a BN takeover and they showed who was the boss.  There was no respectfor the greatest name in railroading.  Also the only railroad to use a cross in their symbol. Just the way it goes.  Corporate power throwing away one of the greatest know product names.  You would never see Proctor&Gamble doing such a thing.

We are talking about a for-profit railroad here-right?  not a benevolent, goodwill society for the beautification of railroad locomotives?  I'm genuinely surprised, that all locomotives aren't painted soot black, for ease of maintenance.

[chuckles]

First,  The Sante Fe name was and is the MOST recognized railroad name in the WORLD!Second, It was a BN takeover and they showed who was the boss.  There was no respectfor the greatest name in railroading.  Also the only railroad to use a cross in their symbol. Just the way it goes.  Corporate power throwing away one of the greatest know product names.  You would never see Proctor&Gamble doing such a thing.

[SchemerBob]

GIVE IT UP THE SANTA FE ,CB&Q, BN ARE GONE FOREVER AND THEY WILL NEVER BE BACK ! GET USE TO IT THE BNSF IS HERE TO STAY IT IS NOT GOING TO CHANGE. TO ME THE BNSF IS THE ONLY RAILROAD THAT HAD THE GUTS TO CHANGE EVERYTHING AND CHANGE THE FUTURE IN RAILROADS.

Couldn't have said it better! Frankly, I don't see what's wrong with the orange and the wedge. I like the warbonnet also, and they're still many locomotives with this paint scheme, so my advice is to get photos while you can, and once it's gone (I have a feeling it will still be a long time though) we'll just have to accept the fact that the BNSF is the BNSF and nothing's going to change that or their paint scheme.

[Lord Atmo]

you forgot the part where CNW comes back and the Itasca sub returns

[EJE818]

I say just split BNSF into two separate subsidiarys, the Santa Fe and the BN and bring back both of their paint schemes! Plenty of patched BNs and Santa Fes left so all you would have to do is remove the patches! Also, I agree, send CN back north of the border, bring back the IC and WC (and bring back ICs GP10s and the WC SD45s also), and abort the EJ&E takeover completely or if anyone has to take them over, make it the WC! I guess none of that is going to happen anytime soon.

[GP40-2]

My vote is yes.  It's not a matter of "our entertainment."  I value heritage, continuity,and honoring the past which I believe is a worthwhile consideration for all huge corporate entities which are generally perceived by the public to be cold, bloodless, and ruthless.  And I do believe BNSF would be well advised to honor all their predecessors in this way.  Besides, fostering good will and a favorable public image surely must have a positive effect on the bottom line. 

Not to pick on you (God, I must be mellowing out with the holidays approaching!) BUT, other than model railroaders and other assorted foamers, do you really think the remaining 99% of the population gives a rat's behind about "heritage" railroads? Fostering good will is great if you have a product to sell to the general public. Good Will works wonders for Proctor & Gamble. It works for railroads only in the eyes of foamers. Railroads don't do retail sales, and their bottom line is more effected by the overall state of the economy and not by any warm-fuzzy feelings railfans or the general public have about them. Do any of you really think the general public even noticed a difference when CSX had the all gray "stealth" units vs. the "pseudo-heritage" B&O/C&O paint scheme now used?

[norbs]

No, No, No The past is just that, the past. Where do we stop? Santa Fe engines with their blue and gold running on old Sante Fe trackage. Great Northern running across the North. Northern Pacific in the middle with the Milwaukee Road. Each Division depending on their heritage wearing the colors of their parent road on their engines. Maybe the CP Rail will run only CP engines north of the border and SOO and WC south of the border.

Let's leave the past to the model railroaders who can go back in time as far as they want and let the railroad of their youth continue on. I happen to model the SOO line from Theif River Falls MN to Glenwood MN. And on my little space in time the SOO line owns the CP. We don't need to relive the past, just model it.

Last but not least, each company needs to have its own identity and logo, not something borrowed from the past that only represents part of the spectrum that makes up the BNSF empire.  

[Lord Atmo]

GIVE IT UP THE SANTA FE ,CB&Q, BN ARE GONE FOREVER AND THEY WILL NEVER BE BACK ! GET USE TO IT THE BNSF IS HERE TO STAY IT IS NOT GOING TO CHANGE. TO ME THE BNSF IS THE ONLY RAILROAD THAT HAD THE GUTS TO CHANGE EVERYTHING AND CHANGE THE FUTURE IN RAILROADS.

please. it makes it come across as yelling and all-caps posts are frowned upon