Hmmmm..... As I recall CSX had a paint scheme in all grey once. No one seemed to like it then. Everyone said something to the effect that it was not visibly safe, or something like that........ *dripping with sarcasm*
All jokes aside, beautiful paint scheme. Kind of like NS, basic but nice.
Are UP's CCRCL's still painted grey?
BNSFrailfan wrote:My friend works for the UP. He found out about the new paint scheme. He e-mailed me about it. People. This just might be a "NEW" trend for the Union Pacific. We shall see. The only problem. It's missing the 'New Image' flag scheme.
Your friendly neighborhood CNW fan.
It is not a “new” paint scheme, but has been in use for about a year or so on helper and hump units, along with the remote units.
UP paints the hump helpers, transfer units and remotes grey now, when they shop them for repairs or when they absolutely have to have new paint.
Most of them are “B” units, in that they are no longer lead unit qualified.
Note the unit below, it is about to help drag a switch cut over the hump at Englewood, (Houston, look at the background))…it will also be used on yard to yard transfer work.
Sorry about the bad shot, I was blocked by…you guessed it, a train!
The photo is about an hour old.
The Y in the unit number is there because this is a merger acquired engine, and UP already had a 153 road unit.
They add the Y to denote it is a yard engine, not a road unit.
As more of the older units become too expensive to maintain, or when units such as the one in the original post become damaged or broken, if the cost of bringing them up to lead unit specs is too great, you will see them become part of the grey fleet, and be used as helper units.
23 17 46 11
I like the new scheme.It is a refreshing change from yellow.
The gray on the ex GE RC control units is NOT shiney like on the 6344.
Why would UP assign a AC44 to yard duty…other than they have lots and lots of them from mergers.
UP 6344 is former SP 298, part of the first SP AC 44 order.
She is old, and pretty worn…rode hard and put up wet quite a few times.
Pretty close to 10 years old, if not older.
If you haven’t noticed, UP is not doing all that much in the form of repair work to the SP or CNW units…basically running them till the wheels wear off!
Now, if you want to believe that, after so much bad press, and the lawsuits over trademark infringement, UP has decided to give up Amour Yellow and paint their units grey…
Keep in mind UP has closed most of the back shops and major fabrication shops, so making yard slugs or converting old locomotives to cab less helper units is much harder than before.
If you will look, the windows in the photo I took this afternoon are painted over, not plated over.
The paint was nice and shiny about two years ago, but two years of hump duty with only the rain as a wash station will pretty much fade out any paint.
Nice work on obtaining this shot...but something else has caught my attention and I wonder if any one else has noticed....
the unit in the background. UP yellow Milwaukee Road??? Where was this taken and when? is that a E unit? A or B number etc. What is the "dirt" on this unit?
zapp wrote:Sorry folks, hate to bring you down, but this unit is in primer. It is scheduled to go to Paducah, KY. for repainting after the holiday rush.
I got that off our computer. It doesn't say, one way or the other, if it is in primer or not. Remember who you are talking about, this is Union Pacific, and those decals are going to be written off. Their cost to this corporation is truly minuscule in the big picture. Come on man, they repainted all those 50's then turned them back in to the lessor in 8 month's after the repaint. They do crazy things in Omaha!
I can make a call to a friend of mine in Omaha and find out for sure.
Lord Atmo wrote:it's got all the decals on it though. no RR puts decals on primer units.
Exactly. Those Scotchlite emblems, letters and striping aren't cheap, even when purchased in bulk. I know a modest graphics package for each of my EMS department's ambulances costs $800.
Mark
Sorry folks, but I miss read the info on this unit. It was transported from Fife, WA. to Paducah, KY on 04 AUG. then released on 14 NOV. So something happened to it, either a very bad accident, or a very serious mechical issue (I'm going for the first one), but the car trace on the website doesn't give enough information.
I do know this:
(1.) It's not a "B" unit and,
(2.) It's not in yard service. It is currently on the MSCNP-19 headed back to N. Platte from somewhere out west.
I realize this doesn't answer the original question, but hey we're a little closer.
I'll try to get by a yard so I can get on the main frame and do an =LI on this unit.
I did find out that there are 11 B23-7's and B-30's fixin' (for you yankee's this means "is about") to be scrapped!! Thank God. I hate those pieces of crap! They were junk off the assembly line and they are very close to be really junked!
CNW534 wrote: Lord Atmo wrote:it's got all the decals on it though. no RR puts decals on primer units. Exactly. Those Scotchlite emblems, letters and striping aren't cheap, even when purchased in bulk. I know a modest graphics package for each of my EMS department's ambulances costs $800. Mark
I dont know the cost of decals for big trucks but on the Fiberglass freightliner bodies it is no problem to use Citrus Acid to strip the old decal off and literally rub the new one on. Sometimes in cold weather we gotta heat the surface to hand peel or scrape the decal off.
I was assigned a virgin unit that was decaled for the so called Elite Fleet and it only took 20 minutes to strip that decoration off the body. 5 unit letters later (And a computer speed reduction from 75 to 63), it was a regular unit in revenue service.
The old days of hand painting signs etc on trucks is pretty dead, but it is still maintained as a art form for show trucks.
http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/locoPicture.aspx?id=20541
A link just to add to the process.
BNSFrailfan wrote:NOW I TRULY LIKE THAT. OH MY GOD OH MY GOD OH MY GOD.....I REALY REALY LIKE THAT. SWEEEEET!
I hate it.
Lionel collector, stuck in an N scaler's modelling space.
Looks good if UP wants to screw over their public relations department. Keeping the yellow UNIFIES them, the grey just looks ugly and then you will half half the units grey half yellow and it will be a big mess.
Bring back the flag, and the yellow, and have a ball.
Mechanical Department "No no that's fine shove that 20 pound set all around the yard... those shoes aren't hell and a half to change..."
The Missabe Road: Safety First
I wouldn't say is looks good, but it does look different. I agree that it should have the flag decal on the side. It would look better with yellow numbers, but that sort of removes the SP heritage from the locomotive....(Possibly the use of the red letters?)
Also, that photoshoped sd40 looks like it had the color saturation turned way down, because a few things still show fringe color (the strobe lights being the brightest are still a bit orange). Getting real gray in photoshop takes a little more work.
stmtrolleyguy wrote:Also, that photoshoped sd40 looks like it had the color saturation turned way down, because a few things still show fringe color (the strobe lights being the brightest are still a bit orange). Getting real gray in photoshop takes a little more work.
Definitly, It literally took me 2 minutes to do it. If I had had a little more time I wuld have done it better.
RJ
"Something hidden, Go and find it. Go and look behind the ranges, Something lost behind the ranges. Lost and waiting for you. Go." The Explorers - Rudyard Kipling
http://sweetwater-photography.com/
You could get your own, in HO scale from Athearn.
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It was a photo shop job, i had that unit on my train one night and i took some pictures of it.
You can find them here:
http://www.railroad.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=34743
Its a photo shop job, i had that unit one night and took some pictures of it. It was never painted grey. Click on that link and you should be able to find my pictures in there.
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