I have wanted for some time to take a picture of locomotives of all the various UP absorbed RR's in a head to head placement located at the 45deg./60deg. crossings as shown above This would mean I need eight, four axle locomotives for the shot, I only run four axle locomotives. I currently have examples of Union Pacific, Western Pacific, Southern Pacific, Cotton Belt, Denver & Rio Grand Western, MKT and Chicago Northwestern. What I need is a four axle Missouri Pacific loco preferably in the "Screaming Eagle" paint scheme. Everything I can find on ebay is either old Kato Gp38-2's, not my first, second or third choice or is six axle, or is stupidly expensive. Anybody out there with what I need?
One of the reasons I don't like the UP is that it absorbed so many good...no, great railroads and painted them in a scheme that has hardly changed since the coming of diesels (I said hardly changed, not never changed). Armour yellow is just so boring...
All of the existing Class 1 railroads are the culmination of mergers and acquisitions and if you think Union Pacific's colors are boring, just think "CSX Dark Future" and suddenly Armour Yellow starts looking pretty good. That being said; in my world, co-created by the voices in my head, UP wasn't so successful in becoming "The Borg" and many of the Fallen Flags that fell to UP are still around and hauling freight, and maybe even passengers!
It's too bad the SPSF merger was eventually overruled. At least they had time to "develop" the Kodachrome scheme (see what I did there?) That Kodachrome scheme actually lived on after the fact by painting over the "SP", but I never saw one in person (I did see SPSF a time or two). I wonder if SP did the same thing afterwards, or were ATSF locomotives the only ones purchased or repainted during the ill-fated merger? It really irked me that UP was later allowed to gobble up SP when the same type of concerns were apparently unimportant. At least we have "Big New Santa Fe" (as it is called in Fort Worth). But that orange and green color scheme is hideous.
The way I understood it, Santa Fe locomotives which got repainted during that time were labeled SF, Espee repaints wore SP, and new locomotives got the full Shouldn't've Painted So Fast. I never heard of anything getting painted over afterward until they lost the lurid colors, but that doesn't mean it didn't happen. I believe the Santa Fe would have been content with the WP, D&RGW and one of the roads connecting St. Louis and Memphis, such as the Frisco. This was a plan made by the USRA during WWI also, which recognized that the Harriman roads worked too well together, having been built when E.H. Harriman controlled both. But when the Santa Fe tried to merge with the Western Pacific years before the SPSF mess, that was disallowed. Why? I have no clue; I assume it was a lack of campaign contributions. Then the UP was allowed to merge with the WP, which led directly to the SPSF. The government gave the ATSF and SP no choice but merge with each other, then annulled the marriage. Screw you both. The Hill roads, Harriman roads and the Rock Island, and an ATSF/DRGW/WP/SLSF combination would have produced three viable railroads competing where now we have two leviathans. We'd be better off, and the government itself declared that a good idea way back about 1919. But, you know, if Washington really loved us and wanted us to be happy... "We have exclusive rights to the world's single most popular locomotive paint scheme ever, but won't use it because [insert power mongering senior partner/ junior partner blather here]." Whatever, people.
Here is a Kato model of a C30-7 in late (post-de-merger) Kodachrome scheme, that had been slightly repainted after the de-merger by simply painting over in red the SP part of the former SPSF logo. On the nose, they kept the S from the SP, and the F from the SF, and painted red over the PS in the middle, to maintain logo symmetry about the midline of the nose. My thoughts exactly on the famous red and silver war bonnet scheme for BNSF, which they actually painted on some locomotives early post-merger. But most all new locos have been ordered in the hideous orange and green, and repaints the same way. They have the rights to the most-recognized icon in all NA railroading, and they refuse to use it... Some idiot that flunked Marketing 101 must have made that decision.
I HAVE AN IDEA !!! !!! (Ummm... why does everyone run when I say that ???) How about the correct green and white (NOT "cream") in the war bonnet scheme ??? "BNSF" and road number on cab in "Santa Fe" font. Round BNSF logo on the nose. Some of you know that computer drawing / painting stuff. See how it would look !!!
Don't need all that. Just a search engine. It wasn't exactly iconic, but it was far, far better than hideous. Or maybe you prefer Cascade green? I don't know if this is photoshopped or not, but I think it is.
Oooh! I like the green one! I just don't like "cream" on any loco. Cream or beige is an in between color and looks wishy washy, except inside a house. You need sharp, forceful, bold colors. If you are going cream, might as well go all the way and use white!
9647 was green, right down to the trucks. It was just such a dark green you need direct sunlight, two spotlights and a strobe to see it.
Kodachrome They give us those nice bright colors Give us the greens of summers Makes you think all the world's a sunny day, oh yeah I got a Nikon camera I love to take a photograph So mama, don't take my Kodachrome away If I can't have the SP, then at least give me the SPSF! Acptulsa got the SPSF paint right. Some were SP, some were SF, only a couple were both and they got painted over. I saw and photographed lots of the SP and SF versions, never saw a SPSF IRL.
Like "deepest darkest forest green"! But I'm not a fan of the cream. And I like "BNSF" rather than: Burlington Northern Santa Fe, 'cuz I can pronounce the former "Big New Santa Fe"! Adding "Santa Fe" on the tail end of any railroad name makes it sound better! It started on the tail end, after all.
