I just learned Metra, the commuter train operator in Chicago, has painted some locomotives to honor predecessor railroads. So far, I beleive it is just three of them.
CB&Q
MILW
Rock Island
I like the varied paint schemes in “heritage” units.
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I think the ROCK ISLAND unit is certainly the best looking of the group.
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-Kevin
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Compared to the heritage paint jobs I have seen on ES44s and SDACEs, these look rather goofy IMO. Maybe F59s just don’t work for heritage schemes very well, or maybe the paint job wasn’t designed very well considering the locomotive.
These look kind of weird, I think it is because Metra tried to incorporate elements of their current paint scheme and combine that with heritage colors. This is a bit less true on the CB&Q though…
Irregardless these are kind of cool! I love the CB&Q one, I hope some company makes one in HO or N!
As a semi-OT heads up: New Jersey Transit presented three heritage units this morning, which will go into service tomorrow. CNJ heritage blue with stripes (on a GP40P), PRR 5-stripe Tuscan, and Erie-Lackawanna. They look good!
I saw those NJT heritage engines! Cool! What a coincidence that two computer agency’s would do this so close together! Here is a Trains article on the new heritage units:
https://trn.trains.com/news/news-wire/2019/10/05-nj-transit-reveals-heritage-locomotives
A nice spread with photos courtesy Railway Age.
https://www.railwayage.com/passenger/commuterregional/man-those-prr-pinstripes-look-awesome/
Regards, Ed
And amazingly enough, some people were complainign that the GP40-2 isn;t the exact shade of blue it was when delivered… you just can’t please some people I guess. I mean, the NJ Transit logo on it is smaller and in a different place, too - because the loco was modified to HEP and the radiator flare extended to the rear of the long hood at one point in its service, but so what? They didn’t have to do this, this was just being used for MOW service. Pretty sure it will be used to pull a train or two even if the newer locos handle the majority of service.
Just be glad these companies are doing this - I think they look good. It certainly cost more to repaint these with the fancier heritage schemes than to just use the modern schemes, so enjoy it while they last.
–Randy
is there a schedule of which trains heritage units are assigned to?
wondering if I could see any at the Jersey Ave station
Hmm, I don’t know if NJT as specific power assignments or they just use power as needed, where needed.
Hopefully they will be added to the heritage units tracking site: https://www.heritageunits.com
–Randy
Love that Milw Road heritage. (Wish they would have done that when I used to ride on Metra daily.) What a beauty. But I’m partial to Red (orange?) heads… [;)]