I’ve run into a dilemma which way do I run my passenger cars?
like thishttp://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=mXhPd_UhNCM
or like thishttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q4JBJh4w5Gc&list=PLHtxVVWa1FwgBQQYmJ1oTGbzuOMA5Lz2y&index=
Not certain I understand the question. I like the E units on the first one better than the Fs on the 2nd.
the first car after the booster units in both vids which direction should the train cars be facing? I’ll get a couple pics up maybe to help.
BN, I’m guessing you’re asking about ‘down-stripe-forward’ vs. ‘down-stripe-backward’. It’s a bit confusing because you’ve got cars running BOTH ways in the second video.
Anyway, look at the observation car. There’s only one way that would typically face, and it’s running down-stripe-forward. Seems fairly clear.
Stu
Ok, thanks. I was getting confused because other trains are being run opposite from mine.
The “hockey stick” paint scheme only lasted a year or so. After that the white stripe followed the window band with no turn-down.
I can not imagine that a yard crew would pull a car out of the consist, spend an hour or two to turn a particular car just because the stripe dipped in the wrong direction. In time everything got shuffeled around from shoppings, set-outs, bad orders, etc.
There’s a bunch of Emery Gulash videos I’ve watched showing combined GN, NP, BN equipment on the Empire Builder and it looked like a circus train with all the paint schemes. Big Sky, GN green, NP Lowey etc.
Keep in mind that the railroads weren’t spending a whole lot of money on car repaints in the late '60s and early '70s. It took them years to get equipment repainted and in the mean time you could see just about any combination of paint and it even got more colorful when Amtrak took over in 1971.
The days of the perfectly matched streamliner kind of took a hit on the day the Empire State Express was inaugurated on December 7, 1941. After that is was pretty much a dog’s breakfast[:D]
interesting, so if I were to be as close to prototype as possible I wouldn’t be able to run my train. I still have my executive set though, but it’s lead by E’s not F’s.
Keep in mind BN intercity passenger trains only existed for about a year, March 1970 to May 1971. Trains during that time normally were a mix of GN, NP and Burlington cars still in their old paint (including both green and orange and 'Big Sky Blue" for GN) with a few BN repaints thrown in. I don’t know if a solid train of BN cars ever actually happened.
I’m aware, darn amtrak initiative… (shakes fist) I have a couple NP cars I need to find some GN cars, SP&S and CB&Q. oh well an all green will be a good executive train, even though I just got an executive train lol. when I build a bigger better layout I will probably do a thing where BN never joins the amtrak initiative.
soon… soon 
BN24 … One of the beauties of model railroading is we can chose to run trains on our layouts as we like. Some of us do “proto-lanced” layouts based on a real railroad, but not necessarily exactly prototypical in all respects.
So go ahead, and model the BN Railroad passenger trains as if Amtrak was not created. The Cascade Green cars make great looking trains.
Your layout is your own little world. Enjoy it.
thanks heartland, I’d like to do like Packer and I were talking about a while back. I’m gonna find some CB&Q equipment and get an ex Q equipment passenger train. like this one 
I’ve always wondered what would have happened if Santa Fe had never joined Amtrak. They held out until the 11th hour. I was in the station in Lamar waiting to see the combined SuperChielf, El Capitan go through. The station manager said he was waiting on pins and needles waiting for corporate called with their decision. As far as I know the BN was 100% in from the beginning, I mean they had already cancelled the CZ, a year and 2 months earlier, and could not wait to get rid of the others. I think had many railroads not joined Amtrak it would have only been a few years and there would have been no passenger service at all.
sigh, I wish they weren’t so for it. oh well it’ll make a great executive train when I do follow prototype, errr partially.