The C&O merger with N&W, what would’ve been there paint scheme and what would’ve been the railroads name? Tell me what you think.
Locomotives would have been blue with yellow lettering. Both railroads’ paint schemes around that time were nearly identical, for both motive power and rolling stock.
I don’t think that the N&W/C&O merger proposal ever got that far as considering paint schemes, but there were some locomotive renumberings on both roads to eliminate some potential conflicts. The merger application was withdrawn in the wake of the Penn Central bankruptcy.
I’m talking about if they had merged together.
And so was I.
The merger was proposed in mid-1965. N&W locomotives were painted black before that time. Box cars were boxcar red, hoppers and gons were black, cabooses were red. Over on the C&O/B&O side, engines and cushioned cabooses were blue, box cars were blue, boxcar red, or black (depending on various factors), hoppers and gons were black. So what happens: N&W locomotives change to blue, cabooses change to blue, box cars change to blue. Don’t know if the blues were the same, but they were close. Lettering was different (yellow on C&O/B&O, gold on N&W). As Paul pointed out, some locomotives were renumbered on both systems so that there was no duplication between the two railroads.
Now, go to 1970. PC goes bankrupt, and the N&W and C&O/B&O end merger talks. Almost immediately, N&W reverts to a black paint scheme so that it looks nothing at all like C&O/B&O.
Now, nowhere does it say that N&W changed from black to blue because they were preparing for a merger with C&O/B&O (the common story is that Herman Pevler, who had come from the Wabash, liked the old Wabash blue). But both railroads had little more than initials (or name) and a small logo on their locomotives. It wouldn’t be hard to decide on a color for the lettering of the merged company, and letter the new railroad’s markings over the existing blue. I wouldn’t expect a major new paint scheme that used something other than a dark color, because light colors don’t work that well in coal territory (Chessie and CSX fo
I guess the name would be Norfolk and Ohio. That would make the reporting marks NO.
Maybe N&O. Chesapeake & Western with reporting marks C&W or CW
Maybe dark bright blue and gold would’ve been there colors.