The NS heritage locomotive paint commemorative for the NS 30th anniversary is first class.
It is always a surprise how much something costs to paint.
What is the cost to paint a regular NS locomotive in black and white?
What has been the cost to paint the heritage units? Average cost for the 20?
Most expensive heritage paint scheme to paint?
Least expensive heritage unit to paint? (Penn Central?)
William:
You might consider starting at this webs site to cost the painting of NS’s Heritage Fleet. http://www.alaskarails.org/sf/repaint/index.html
My guess is that since the time frame on this quoted web information is oly about 6-7 years old, and referencing repainting of some ARR Geeps ( smaller types that the ones NS Corp painted). My guess is had they been repaints the figures would have been way North of $40 K per engine.
Since these were new engines, they were delivered in primer; it is probably logical to say NS Corp footed the bill for the custom paint jobs.
Painting would be a single factor; consider the logistics of moving the Heritage Fleet to the locations where they were to be decorated for their service. Fuel, Miles, and Labor, not to mention Logistics to get them where they needed to be to meet the schedules required for the 4th of July festivities at NC Transportation Museum.
NS Corp made it look easy, but you can bet your bippy, that there was a heck of a lot more to that story than Mr.Wick Moorman just snapping hos fingers and wavin
GE’s were delivered in primer and painted by NS at two sites. EMD’s were “factory painted”.
samfp1943:
Thanks for the link. Reading it, my guesstimate is that custom paint could be in the order of $50K to $100K.
Maybe somebody from Electro Motive or NS will share some info?
William Kiesel