BNSF Special Painted Engines

[caldreamer]

From the jointlinefrilfans.io forum.  BNSF will be painting five engines in special paint schemes to celebrate their twenty fifth aniversery.  According to the post three ES44SAC's are already at MAC in Kansas City being painted. The five units selected are allegedly BNSF 5872, 6017, 6022, 6078, & 6111, all ES44AC's. They supposedly will be released in September.

     Ira

[kgbw49]

OK, I'll bite.

Great Northern orange and green

Northern Pacific two tone green

CB&Q Chinese Red

Frisco red and white

Sante Fe dark blue and yellow from the FT era

[rdamon]

Good article from Jan 2020

https://www.progressiverailroading.com/bnsf_railway/article/BNSF-in-solid-position-as-silver-anniversary-nears--59427

I hope to see some Cascade Green with a nose covered in white stripes!!

[CSSHEGEWISCH]

I'll rain on the parade.  I'm skeptical about the whole thing until there's an official announcement from Fort Worth.

[azrail]

More than likely the red/silver warbonnet

[NorthWest]

First unit is out; an orange version of the BN "Pacific Pride" units.

https://www.facebook.com/BNSFRailway/posts/3173267899417510

[Overmod]

From the BNSF Facebook page -- oh ye of little faith!

"Keep an eye out, and you might spot something different leading a BNSF Railway train! This is the first of 10 locomotives that will help celebrate the 25th Anniversary of the merger that formed BNSF Railway by sporting logos of our historic predecessor lines. It’s going operational tomorrow and another nine will follow over the next few weeks ... Let us know if you spot one of these special locomotives! We'd love to see pictures."

Let's all do just that!  I know I'll be watching... but it does have to be said that all ten might be exactly the same, orange units with all the different logos on them.  

[azrail]

In other words stickers placed on the side of the carbody-no retro paint jobs. And one of the most boring logos of all of the major railroads-you can't do something new after 25 years.

[zugmann]

azrail

In other words stickers placed on the side of the carbody-no retro paint jobs. And one of the most boring logos of all of the major railroads-you can't do something new after 25 years.

1. It's the first of 10.  Let's see what the other 9 bring (hopefully something more substantial). 

2. As said prior, it's a reboot of the original BN Pacific Pride engine. 

[Flintlock76]

If stickers are all they do then honestly it's a bit of a disappointment.  But when you come right down to it they don't have to do anything. 

I'd love to see a resurrection of those classic paint schemes like the Great Northern,  Northern Pacific, CB&Q, and Santa Fe had, but then I wouldn't be the one paying for it.   

[Murphy Siding]

     You guys need to think way outside the box. Entities that own stadiums figured out how to make an extra buck. Why does the paint job even have to be railroad related? They could cover the locomotive with advertizing. Think big: Microsoft, Mountain Dew, Budweiser!

[CSSHEGEWISCH]

Murphy Siding

     You guys need to think way outside the box. Entities that own stadiums figured out how to make an extra buck. Why does the paint job even have to be railroad related? They could cover the locomotive with advertizing. Think big: Microsoft, Mountain Dew, Budweiser!

 

Nothing is new under the sun.  Some of us remember when the Railway Express Agency used to place ads on the sides of its delivery trucks and semi-trailers.

[Overmod]

Murphy Siding

Why does the paint job even have to be railroad related? They could cover the locomotive with advertising. Think big: Microsoft, Mountain Dew, Budweiser!

Somewhere I still have a copy of the artwork from the initial marketing guy for the T1 Trust that has the tender decked out in supergraphic Coca-Cola red and white script.  (Ties in with Tuscan-red collector cans made with 'real sugar' and twice the caffeine...)

I assume everyone here has seen Kelly Lynch's Coke commercial with 765, a different but certainly no less effective way to do promotion.

The skins I developed for the 'New London Bus' competition would allow this sort of thing to be loaded and run, including animation, just like modern billboards...

[azrail]

All of goods and services owned by Berkshire could be advertised on the side of BNSF locos....Geico, Dairy Queen, Duracell, Steelcase...

[CMStPnP]

Flintlock76

I'd love to see a resurrection of those classic paint schemes like the Great Northern,  Northern Pacific, CB&Q, and Santa Fe had, but then I wouldn't be the one paying for it.   

Most of those were designed by General Motors  - EMD to make their E and F cab units look better.

[caldreamer]

UNTIL BNSF releases the locomotives, everyone is just speculating on what the paint schemes will be.  NOTHING  official has been said about which paint schemes will be uses.

[nyc#25]

I started railfanning in the 1950's.  Back then they were called "heralds".  Nobody ever heard the word "logo" then.

[Flintlock76]

Murphy Siding

     You guys need to think way outside the box. Entities that own stadiums figured out how to make an extra buck. Why does the paint job even have to be railroad related? They could cover the locomotive with advertizing. Think big: Microsoft, Mountain Dew, Budweiser!

 

It's been done!  But not often though.  I've seen photos of Amtrak NEC locomotives "skinned" with advertising, also some NJ Transit units. 

Why it's not done more often as a revenue source I couldn't say.

[SD70Dude]

Flintlock76

Murphy Siding

     You guys need to think way outside the box. Entities that own stadiums figured out how to make an extra buck. Why does the paint job even have to be railroad related? They could cover the locomotive with advertizing. Think big: Microsoft, Mountain Dew, Budweiser!

It's been done!  But not often though.  I've seen photos of Amtrak NEC locomotives "skinned" with advertising, also some NJ Transit units. 

Why it's not done more often as a revenue source I couldn't say.

Via Rail used to have a bunch of wrapped ad locomotives.  Kool-Aid, Spiderman, Home Hardware and Telus come to mind, though there were more.  The Quebec lottery one was the worst, it ended up looking like a giant turd as the paint faded.

https://www.railbus.ca/via-ad10.html

[Overmod]

Flintlock76

Why it's not done more often as a revenue source I couldn't say.

There may be issues with not offending competitors or other shippers -- see some of the discussions around the Marlboro Express "Thunder" project. There have been some famous advocacy paint schemes, including for local sports teams and the Olympics.

I suspect if there were better mobile 'wrap' teams, with railroad safety savvy, a better pitch could be made to transit authorities or various freight operators.  Although I have latently-suppressed, terrible by dim recollection memories of something involving Amtrak and libraries that leads me to start finding excuses not to facilitate this sort of thing...

[NP Eddie]

Great looking locomotive with those decals. As far as I am concerned, the SLSF and ATSF could have been left off. The SLSF was run by a bunch of southern clods who did not know railroading. The ATSF people took over and knew nothing about winter railroading and screwed up a good railroad.

 

They forgot the FW&D.

The BN was formed by railroaders who know how to railroad in all weather.

I was there at Northtown (Minneapolis) in 1970 and witnessed it first hand.

Ed Burns

Retired NP, BN, etc. from Northtown.

[Psychot]

Man, would I love to see one in Big Sky Blue with the mountain goat logo and another in the NP's Loewy scheme.

[Flintlock76]

Overmod

There may be issues with not offending competitors or other shippers

Possibly, but the shippers issue is a non-starter with the examples I gave, Amtrak and NJ Transit don't have shippers.  As far as competitors go as far as I know Amtrak and NJT don't play favorites, you want your ad on the locomotive, sure, as long as you're willing to pay for it.

[NP Eddie]

It is doughtful that the BNSF will paint any locomotives as the NS has done. Cost is the primary reason. NP [2] (freight black and Lowey green), GN [2] (EB colors and Big Sky Blue), CBQ [2] Chinese red and original GP and SD colors, SLSF, SPS, and ATSF [2] FT blue and yellow and the war bonnet.

Ed Burns

[rdamon]

https://railpictures.net/photo/746883/

https://railpictures.net/photo/746882/

[Overmod]

Of course this is still a world in which 15 minutes of casual railfanning turns up three units in Warbonnet paint and three -- in a block! -- in executive scheme.  (And this 5 minutes after seeing ex-IC 1011 and 1019, both still in unpatched 'death star' paint, running doubleheaded... on NS...)

[Leo_Ames]

Was afraid they were all going to be that way. Was how the press release read, so I'm not too surprised to see repeats.

[kgbw49]

Kind of reminds me of Skittles with all the bright colors on the side.

[rdamon]

If NASCAR raced locomotives.. 

[Overmod]

rdamon

If NASCAR raced locomotives.. 

Well, not exactly, since none of the stickers are advertisers.  Perhaps more like the ricer community, where cars are plastered with stickers in return for free or discounted component parts, a little more analogous to component rail systems in an overly merged single thing.