We all know that UP has painted several SD70ACe’s in special predecessor colors. But, has any road considered painting a handfull of their rollingstock, like maybe 2 cars a piece for each heritage road, in the colors and markings of railroads that they either merged with or aquired, or were their predecessors? BNSF still has covered hoppers, boxcars and mech reefers that date back to BN predecessors in the 1960s. And both NS and CSX have a boat load of predecessors to choose from. Of course the only big problem would be grafitti. WISOR manged to paint several of their insulated plug boxcars in special non-heritage schemes, and they still seem to look good. Obviously, workers at the rail yards are keeping a close eye on those special cars. And KCS recently added whole lot of new covered hoppers painted in a variation of their Belle scheme, which look fancier than the typical covered hopper.
there was a up boxcar with an overland herald on it in the maw siding a few weeks ago.looked rather fresh.there are some cars like that to keep the trademark for the railroad.
stay safe
joe
UP has painted many different hoppers with “CMO” as reporting marks. This of course is the Chicago St. Paul Minneapolis & Omaha Railroad, which was basicly a sister road to the C&NW before they merged in the late 60’s.
Other than that, I can’t think of anything…
I’d like to see some pics of that Overland boxcar sometime…My guess is that it’s a fairly well preserved MOW boxcar. There are many of them still around in old schemes…
Phil
OK. The use of the CMO reporting marks for certain UP equipment is no more a “Heritage” thing than if they’d lettered it “KOG” or “SI”. They just resurrected a reporting mark that they control to denote equipment under a certain type of lease.
UP is in the best position of any railroad to honor its predecessors with “heritage” freight equipment, because they don’t reletter any freight cars after a merger–in other words, there’s no series of UP-lettered cars that’s made up of ex-MP cars, for example.
The “Overland Route” box car Joe saw is one of a small group of these cars that UP has maintained to keep control of that logo. I seem to remember a similar series of box cars with Western Pacific’s original square logo (not the most recent stylized feather) for the same reason.
UP also has a number of predecessors’ cars that it has repainted–not in the paint schemes they once carried, but with the companys’ “classic” logos. There are several SSW Center Flow hoppers (which were never originally lettered with anything but black “Cotton Belt” lettering) that now carry the classic “Cotton Belt Route” logo in blue on the sides. I’ve also seen a Southern Pacific hi-cube box car (86-footer) with the SP Sunset logo to the right of the doors (nothing like the scarlet and gray paint scheme with the 15-foot logos that these cars all carried), and a D&RGW gondola with the classic “Through the Heart of the Rockies” logo in white, blue, and gold–gons old enough to be painted black never had more than the script lettering.
So the real heritage equipment is in fact out there!
I seem to recall seeing a DRGW Center-flow with DRGW’s logos on it. I have seen the gondola (I think it is a coil car), and one of the SSW Center-flows. However, it seems like it has been a couple of years since I have seen any of these. I have yet to see the SP boxcars.
Not all of the SP 86’ boxcars sre red and gray. Many SP and SSW cars are brown (even prior to UP taking over).
Not truly Heritage, however, in the lead up to the ConRail split between CSX and NS, the ConRail equipment received reporting marks of NYC and PRR…NYC equipment was apportioned to the CSX accounts and the PRR equipment was apportioned to the NS accounts. Many pieces of equipment are still wearing the NYC and PRR reporting marks.
The Box Car with the Overland Route decal that I spotted was an Exterior-Braced, Plug-Door, High-Cube Boxcar repainted by the UP. That Overland Route Box Car had WP reporting marks. It must have been repainted between 1999-2004. It probably was built by Pacific Car & Foundry in the late 1970’s or early 1980’s.
Andrew
Point of fact, Balt: no Conrail freight cars were ever relettered PRR as a consequence of the breakup. Cars that went to CSX were relettered NYC (and still are); the majority–57 percent–of Conrail’s cars went to NS and retained their CR markings. “Heritage” reporting marks (PC, PRR, EL, RDG) went to NS, though some of the equipment that had carried these marks was relettered NYC and assigned to CSX. It would appear that any remaining CNJ equipment (there was a little) was relettered NYC and went to CSXT.
NS doesn’t really need a “heritage” line of rolling stock, they still have plenty of old equipment in original paint. I saw 20 “Southern Serves the South” boxcars( one of my favorites) roll by me today while I was eating lunch. Generally I see quite a few NW cover hoppers around and most of the MoW equipment in my area is ex-NW. I love to see these old cars so much rail history in them. I would much rather see NS do a some locomotive heritage units like UP. Seeing a newly painted NW or VGN unit would be a great icon for The Thoroughbred.
KCS is suppose to have paint about a 100 or so freight cars I think in their heirtage theme Retro Belle…At least that was the word when the SD70Aces first arrived on the property…
The first delivery of KCS Through Sill 3-Bay Hoppers was 100 cars. The total should be 1,300 Through Sill 3-Bay Hoppers at the end of the order. They are all in the scheme that matches the KCS SD70ACes and the KCS ES44AC Locomotives.
Andrew
What about CN repainting DWP (DWC) CV and GTW cars
Since the “Southern serves the South” boxcar was mentioned, I spotted an old boxcar in either this scheme, or the “green light” scheme, with the graphics so badly weathered that the reporting marks had to be touched up – to “NS”!!! I might have snapped a picture, but I haven’t done much for photo processing lately… [:(]
About four years ago the “OS Colorado” column of the Rocky Mountain Rail Report (Rocky Mtn. RR. Club) stated that Union Pacific had applied a series of classi
The WP Exterior-Braced 60’ High-Cube Box Cars with the Overland Route Decals had multiple color decals. The multiple color Overland Route decals were just big enough to fit between the exterior posts of the Box Cars.
Andrew