I may be mistaken on this (and please let me know if I am) but from m limited knowledge of railraoding in the 1970s, the mergers back then appear to have repainted their equiptment much faster. I read somewhere that BN repainted all their equiptment in 7 years. BNSF has been in business for 21 years and they still haven't repainted all their equiptment. Same with UP.
I'm not complaining-- makes railfannign interesting, but is there a reason for this shift in priorities?
The Beaverton, Fanno Creek & Bull Mountain Railroad
"Ruby Line Service"
The answer is "it depends." When I moved here to CSX country (Richmond VA) in 1987 it seemed CSX wasn't in any great hurry to repaint units, saving the repaints for when the locomotives went in for major overhauls. The other 'road around here is Norfolk-Southern and I don't recall seeing anything other than N-S basic black no matter what the unit, ever, so I'd suppose NS gave repaints higher priority.
At any rate it costs money to repaint a locomotive, and certainly the paint job doesn't make it pull any better.
KBCpresident BNSF has been in business for 21 years and they still haven't repainted all their equipment.
Case in point: Santa Fe 661 (cab stenciled for BNSF) still in red-silver Warbonnet was third unit this afternoon, westbound on the old Frisco going under I-240. In main line service ... who says C44-9Ws are mothballed?
I do have to wonder how many of these are still running. Same for the not-so-periodic appearance of SD70s in Grinstein green ... those might even be older.
Or a quick run by the rail yards in Portland, especially the one in NE. I saw Cascade Green SD60Ms just the other day. They finally got rid of the BN logo. (Used to be BNSF beneath the BN logo.
KBCpresidentOr a quick run by the rail yards in Portland, especially the one in NE. I saw Cascade Green SD60Ms just the other day. They finally got rid of the BN logo. (Used to be BNSF beneath the BN logo.)
On and off at least one of the locomotives that service the hump at Tennessee Yard (don't remember its new name) has been Cascade Green -- I thought of this as a sentimental thing, like the way crews on the ex-SSW seemed to put the patched SP locomotives in the lead so often a decade ago. (Or the reported careful keeping of the last C&NW painted units out of the paint shop...)
A different sort of 'heritage paint scheme' program, but a fun one for 'treasure hunt' railfans...
Overmod KBCpresident Or a quick run by the rail yards in Portland, especially the one in NE. I saw Cascade Green SD60Ms just the other day. They finally got rid of the BN logo. (Used to be BNSF beneath the BN logo.) On and off at least one of the locomotives that service the hump at Tennessee Yard (don't remember its new name) has been Cascade Green -- I thought of this as a sentimental thing, like the way crews on the ex-SSW seemed to put the patched SP locomotives in the lead so often a decade ago. (Or the reported careful keeping of the last C&NW painted units out of the paint shop...) A different sort of 'heritage paint scheme' program, but a fun one for 'treasure hunt' railfans...
KBCpresident Or a quick run by the rail yards in Portland, especially the one in NE. I saw Cascade Green SD60Ms just the other day. They finally got rid of the BN logo. (Used to be BNSF beneath the BN logo.)
Living 'on' BNSF lines here in Kansas, and as many of the varient BNSF locomotive paint schemes sunning around on the BNSF around here; there are still occasionally seem 'Other', one might say, 'Heritage' paint schemes still making appearances on BNSF trains.
Occasionaly,l there is the odd 'Greenstein Green" that seems to be soley assigned on unit coal trains.
The older former ' Santa Fe' [patched BNSF] yellow nosed with blue that seem to be assigned to the Wellington and Wichita yards, and Boeing [Spirit Aero?] local switch operation.
There there are the former 'Santa Fe Warbonnet' painted units.. which are supposedly, parked and stored, that occasionally, keep showing up on trains through here. Running second or third out in the locomotive consts coming off the Transcon or heading back West.
[and OH, Yeah! Someone tell me why, when there are two CSX units on a train; why is it. that it always seems to be light gray, and dark blue? There never seem to be two of the same color scheme? ]
Hi Sam!
Why two paint schemes on CSX units. They've been referred to as 'Bright Future' and 'Dark Future' by the way. It gets back to my earlier post, CSX isn't in any rush to repaint units. They'll all wind up with the blue 'Dark Future' eventually.
I should add there was one group CSX didn't waste any time with. When CSX wanted to purchase the RF&P the state of Virginia being a majority shareholder played hardball with CSX and didn't give it away. When CSX finally coughed up the money and got the 'road they didn't repaint all the RF&P locomotives right away, but it seemed they couldn't obliterate those RF&P markings fast enough.
The "ghost" of the RF&P got the last laugh, at least for a while. The RF&P mainline was equipped with ATS, so all the CSX trains traveling that route had to have the old blue and grey RF&P units on the head of the consists. CSX units weren't so equipped.
Another point to consider is the size of the fleets involved in the most recent megamergers. There's a lot more power that needs to be relettered and renumbered than in the past. A fair amount of older power may get a patch job and be retired or sold before it needs a class overhaul when it would have been repainted.
CSSHEGEWISCH Another point to consider is the size of the fleets involved in the most recent megamergers. There's a lot more power that needs to be relettered and renumbered than in the past. A fair amount of older power may get a patch job and be retired or sold before it needs a class overhaul when it would have been repainted.
The primary purpose of paint is to protect the underlying surfaces, so long as the 'original' paint is performing that purpose there is no glaring reason to paint an engine for simple asthetics as there is very little economic return on the paint job (the cost of which will easily buy a low cost automobile). Railroads historically have been very tight fisted in how the 'invest' their capital and in investing it they do expect a return for that investment.
Never too old to have a happy childhood!
Railroads have probably realized over the last 20 years that there's no pressing need to repaint for the sake of "image". Most rolling stock we see is covered in graffitti anyway, so what's the point of a nice paint job on a locomotive? So long as the paint protects the locomotive from the elements, that's really all that matters anyway.
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