Hello. I am looking for some help here. I would like to do some Rock Island “Route Rock” locomotives in a fictional (some say experimental or rumored) black paint schemes… I have seen the black locos with the Blue “R” herald and white hex. Also with white lettering. But I saw a version a while back that was mocked up that had some grey in the paints as well, but now can not locate the drawing on the web.
Does anyone know of these “rumored” paint schemes or have any images of this fictional locomotive? I know it was never a real thing, but I recall it looking very sharp and I would like to add these locos to my freelance Rock Island layout.
I would love any input or creative ideas anyone has to offer. I look forward to seeing who knows what. Thanx! Cheers!
This is a fictional design. However, I too have heard the railroad was thinking about changing to a paint scheme close to the fictional one. There was supposed to be another order, had the railroad survived, for more GP38-2, SD40-2 and MP15 units. I forget the number of each model, it was discussed years ago on the old RITS list. IIRC, it was thought that a future order might have been in a black/blue scheme.
A local modeler a some years ago did a SD90mac in the blue and white Rock scheme. It looked nice.
Had they bought the Alcos, that scheme is most likely what they would’ve looked like. If not, it would’ve been the maroon with the large speed lettering which started appearing in the late 1960s before the color was changed to the bright red.
What’s interesting is how durable that blue Route Rock paint scheme ended up being on freight cars that were patched out by the C&NW and other purchasing railroads. The cars look faded now when you see one but better and fresher looking than some more recently painted cars.
If we are fantasizing about “what if the Rock had not failed” let’s not forget what a surviving Rock Island might have done in an era of heritage paint schemes! Iowa Interstate gave us some taste of what that would have looked like.
