Seventies Paint Scheme

[Anonymous]

One of my favorites was was the red, gray and white Burlington (CB&Q) paint scheme(BN wasn't formed until March 2, 1970...so this is still a valid answer!) . Second favororite was Rio Grande's black and orange withe the large "Grande".

Worst was the black Penn Central locomotive scheme.

[trcarson]

Chessie the Cat, of course!!!!!!

[mandelswamp]

I favor the Central Vermont's Green with Yellow Stripes and CV noodle.

[Anonymous]

1st: D&H with the lightning stripe and large road numbers on the long hood.
2nd: Lehigh Valley just before inclusion in Conrail
3rd: Erie Lackawanna
4th: Chessie System
5th: Reading yellow and green? (sorry, I'm color blind with red/green)

[Anonymous]

how about jersey centrals red baron?

[espeefoamer]

That Chessie scheme just screams "1970s"

[Anonymous]

Hmmm? Tough call, I'd probably have to say BN's green monsters are my favorite I guess I just got used to them, since they rolled by old house South Omaha everyday when I lived there. I have to give honorable mention to Rock Island's Red, and the Milwaukee Road paint scheme both were also full of character.

[Anonymous]

CN was and is the best scheme. Can't argue with a simple, classic, effective design that has hardly changed in approximately 40 years. That's what brilliant concept is all about!!!!

[Anonymous]

My vote for best goes to Erie Lackawanna; maroon, yellow and gray; "Sounds impossible, looks great!" The worst, shared by Penn Central and Norfolk & Western ('71 scheme): boring black. I remember when N&W announced the new scheme, they said they chose black because noone else was using it. (Except connections PC, SCL and SR.) The folks in Roanoke apparently didn't get out much.

[Matt1950]

Having been a railfan from the 50's on, I hated the 70's because of all the fallen flags. I even went out of my way to take photos of the last Southern Pacific SD-9 in the Black Widow paint scheme. I HATED BN Green because of what it covered up.

Now of course I look back fondly on my photos of BN green F-units sitting in Hoyt Street Yard in Portland as BN green dissolves into BNSF.

The only paint scheme to survive over the years has been the UP Armour Yellow and Harbor Mist. It has swallowed everything.

However, my favorite(s) from the 70s were the D&RGW orange and black and the WP Orange and Silver. Both photographed well, especially in low sun.

Matt

[Anonymous]

The worst, absolutely, was the PC black.

[Anonymous]

Have to agree with just about everybody else... Chessie System was unique and lively!
Could you imagine Dash 8's in that classic scheme! C'mon CSX - get brave!

[Anonymous]

PC. Great for we modelers. You get it right every time. But for sheer looks, I agree, Erie Western. It simply was not around long enough to get noticed.

[SALfan]

QUOTE: Originally posted by espeefoamer

That Chessie scheme just screams "1970s"

AMEN! Don't get me wrong, it was an okay scheme in small doses.. Just like orange shag carpeting and lime-green leisure suits, it would have been SO wrong for any other decade. What were we thinking?

My favorite is Southern's green & white with gold striping, and Erie Lackawanna's scheme comes in a close second. Honorable mention: Family Lines/Seaboard System's gray with red & yellow stripes.

[trainboyH16-44]

gotta love CP Rail's Multimark candy stripe scheme
CPR4EVER

[Anonymous]

My favorite seventies paint scheme was Santa Fe's blue and yellow. I am also fascinated by Santa Fe's bicentennial colors of red, white and blue.

Robert Wilhelm

[Anonymous]

My favorite seventies paint scheme is Santa Fe's blue and yellow used on their diesels. I am also fascinated by Santa Fe's bicentennial colors of red, white and blue.

Robert Wilhelm
Mesa, Arizona

[Anonymous]

My very favorites have to be Chessie, Rock Island blue and the Southern Crescent green, white and gold. A good majority of us seem to prefer those as well-great minds think alike! Runner up would be BN. I do love BN's green, but it isn't quite as good as the others I mentioned. I'd never tell my parents, though, as both love BN green/black engines very much!

As far as those who've expressed an opinion on Penn Central's paint scheme, all I can say is...What paint scheme?

Seriously, though, I love PC's aqua green colour that they used on their rolling stock. Why didn't they paint their locomotives in it as well, though? It looks much better than flat black. The model train manufacturers seemed to agree, too, as many made green PC engines. I myself have a green PC F7 in HO scale and I like it a lot. I suppose plain black didn't look too bad on GP diesels, but F units, E units and especially GG1's are another story. A curvaceous engine like a GG1 should have a paint scheme that accentuates its figure...not bare black paint with the mating worns on the side.

[bestengineer]

THE DT&I VERMILLION & BLACK with that compass on the side of the units with the words "We have the connections" on the sides! Ah... And the #1776! now thats the best bicentennial color scheme of all other "70's" railroads...

B.E.Cannon

[cnw1995]

Chicago and North Western. A continuing 'classic' scheme ( in my opinion) during this era, even (since it was the 70s) when the yellow weathered in some instances to be almost white and the green to be almost black. My only experience with PC scheme was seeing the mating worms logo on rust.

[Anonymous]

Worst (IMO): PC teal, Rock Island "bankruptcy blues," Amtrak, Erie-Lackawana, a few others.
Not so favorite: Most others. I actually think that most '70's schemes were very drab and ugly.
Favorite: Chessie, BN, and some others. I prefer 50's and 60's schemes.

P. S. Good idea for a thread!

[gabe]

I really liked the ICG (actually started as IC) Orange White & Black as my favorite (though I was born in 1975 and can barely remember seeing trains in this color.

Top four:

1. ICG's orange white and Black
2. Southern's Cresent
3. Chessie
4. Illinois Terminal (who ever brought that one up, great call)

Bottom:

1. The red white and blue centenial locomotives. Apparently, I am the only one who finds them ugly, but I think they are the worst I have ever seen (although the new BNSF is giving it stiff competition).

2. Penn Central. Just looking at that paint job made you think that every train passing was a funeral forboding the end of railroading.

A poster formerly known as "Gabe."

[Mark300]

My top favorites...
1. The Chessie scheme.
2. The WM's circus scheme on their 'F' units
3. Some of the schemes such as The Eire Lackawanna, Lehigh, Reading that were really late 60's.
4. the Rock Island's 'The Rock'......nice geometric figure topping that 'R."

My least favorites...
1. PennCentral's basic cruddy black with the little letters (Compare it with NS's similar treatment today but NS uses a real logo, stripes and attempts to work with the locomotive's lines and styling. The Illinois Central did a much better job too with their white on black. The PennCentral was a nightmare on so many levels.).
2. Anything sporting diagonal stripes! Ugh!.....as if to say,'Not only am I dangerous....but I'm Ugly too!

Mark

[enr2099]

BC Rail/PGE's early two tone green has to be the best!!

[Anonymous]

I miss the Southern black tuxedo so much, I've made it the theme of my HO layout. Tell me you didn't get goosebumps when those freights thundered by with those high-hoods running long end first, and that nathan P-5 greeting you.

[mloik]

QUOTE: Originally posted by Matt1950

However, my favorite(s) from the 70s were the D&RGW orange and black and the WP Orange and Silver. Both photographed well, especially in low sun.

Matt

Finally! Someone with some taste over all that eastern RR paint-scheme nonsense!

They may have photographed well, but don't forget that WP and DRGW looked great in contrast to the snow.

[JoeUmp]

My favorite has to be the old Santa Fe War Bonnett. Grante it wasn't used much after Amtrak came into being, but it was there.

[NW_611]

In the "color" category, there's no other possible answer than that of the Chessie System. It's an utterly beautiful scheme, and precious little can stand against it in the realm of the "other" railroad liveries. Perhaps only that surreal scheme developed under Patrick B. McGinnis at the New Haven can come close to it in sheer visual appeal. I just wi***hat more had been said about the Chessie System and its livery.

But enough of the colorful cousin that fell prey to a jumble of quasi-meaningless letters. Let us consider the perfect fusion of form and function, the black and white livery. The Penn Central Transportation Company's wrongly-derided livery is eminently attractive, with its stark beauty and sleek modernity, and as such gets my nod for "favorite livery of the 1970s".* Font, herald, and artistic design just click like few other liveries have, at least from my perspective. Not even Norfolk Southern's various attempts in recent years can match the austere cool of the Penn Central's black-and-white.

Hats off to Trains for a solidly enjoyable issue. "The Conrail Bunch" is really funny.

* Had Jack Fishwick been willing to pay for the flanks of his locomotives to say, "NORFOLK AND WESTERN" in some sort of attractive font, perhaps I would have had a harder time setting "Fishwick Black" in the second place.

[floh2]

Absolutely my first choice:
CPRail Action Red with "candy stripes" and Multimark logo ("Pacman").
Looked especially great on the F's.

[pocovalley]

I agree with Chessie, but I think a very close second would be the D&H PA's.