When the WC bought a few F45s, they were looking for ideas on how to paint them. They had a company-wide contest for employees to submit their concepts for the paint scheme, using of course the WC maroon, yellow and white. The winning scheme netted the submitter a bonus along with some other awards and notoriety (it was a horizontal “lightning stripe” type design which I’m happy to say I was able to photograph several times, including at New Brighton, Fond du Lac and Oshkosh). As I remember it described, the winner submitted his pattern having colored it with crayons!
Is this a fairly unique approach in the industry, or have other railroads done similar things?
BTW - I think those F45s look good in a lot of schemes, including the IMRL’s livery which I also photographed in Mason City one very snowy day.
This may be the appropriate venue to make a disparaging comment about BNSF, but I shall refrain. However, I believe that KCS’ “Bicentennial” unit was the result of a contest. Anyone remember that thing?
I don’t remember a KCS “Bicentennial” unit per se, but I do remember an SD 40-2 with every door piece and body panel painted a different color after a complete disassembly of the unit referred to as a “circus paint riot”.
You guys definitely have the right unit in mind. According to Extra 2200 South, KCS SD40-2 616 was painted in this “Bicentennial” paint scheme as the result of a “grade school contest”. They only had a black-and-white photo of it: there were a couple of yellow stars somewhere, and the hood doors were painted red, white, and blue. The rest of the unit had seven or eight other colors on it, including a green nose, a pink cab with an aqua roof, and so on.
Now that I think of it - the Erie Lackawanna’s logo was designed and submitted by a former Erie employee. He did, I thought, a great job combining the Erie and DL&W heralds into the diamond with the “broken E”. I’m ashamed I didn’t recall that sooner about my favorite fallen flag of all time.