hi any CNW experts. i was wondering when the early as built F7 or F3 freight units paint scheme changed to the more familiar yellow/green of later years. was it when the F7’s where renumbered to the 200 series? forgive my lack of info on this subject, but i’m just starting out CNW modeling, early 60’s. thanks. michael r.
Without being a C&NW expert, I’d say they stopped using the green, yellow and black and went to the simpler yellow and green (similar to their passenger E and F units) in the early sixties. I think the M-St.L engines the CNW acquired in the 1960 merger were repainted into the green and yellow scheme. At least by say 1970 I believe F units with the black lower section were either all repainted or very rare.
CNW began painting F-units in the simplified yellow/green with “Chicago and North Western” spelled out on the flanks and nose shields by 1961. The engines retained their four digit 4000 series numbers until 1971-72 when the remaining F-units that hadn’t been traded in on newer units were numbered into the 200 series for A units and the 300 series for B units with CNW heralds on the nose and sides in simplified yellow/green. Units painted in the original black/yellow/green scheme could be found still in the late 60s- abiet quite battered and faded.
At the risk of grossly over simplifying – the CNW diesel roster book by Don Withers might be useful to you – the CNW’s use of F units in normal freights pretty much came to a halt in the early 1960s. There may have been exceptions and experiments but for the most part those original freight Fs kept their freight colors to the end. Some of those freight Fs were scrapped or traded in, but others were re-geared and converted to Chicago commuter service (that included the runs to Milwaukee) and that is when they were painted yellow with green roofs. Sometimes on weekends they would press those commuter Fs into freight service.
In the 1970s and 1980s you started to see Fs in freight service again on the CNW, and this time painted yellow with green roofs, but these were mostly Fs that started out on other roads and bought second hand. Some came from the CGW in the takeover.
Again this is grossly over simplifying both the chronology and what paint scheme was used on the yellow Fs and can be nitpicked to death – my main point is that while the CNW used freight Fs in the 1950s and 60s, and then again in the 70s and 80s, there was a gap where for all practical purposes there were no freight Fs used. If you are going to use a freight F in the old freight colors, it should be in the early 1960s at best, very rare by 1963 or 64 at the latest, and very heavily weathered.
Dave Nelson