Just saw the pics of CN. THANK YOU!
While we are on paint jobs, lately in a yard near home, I have seen some NS consists with what appears to be unpainted units well back from the front. The lead unit is painted NS black & white, but often one unit appears to be primed only , with a dull finish, off-grey in color. Does anyone know the reason for this? to save money? or something else? Thanks in advance for any info on this.
NS has, on at least a couple of occasions, received some of its locomotives from GE in gray primer, just to get them on the road faster. The idea is to paint them later, but some “ghosts” have been floating around for quite a while now.
I think I heard about CSX doing something similar recently. And UP had some of its SD70ACEs delivered in primer, but we found out why later on–Heritage units and the Bush buggy.
With the power shortage on some RR’s, they have been accepting primed units - to be painted later during the slower season. Perhaps this is the reason. It get’s the units in service quicker.
dd
Al Krugs site has/had a shot of a unit in primer - with the lighting, it looked almost like it was a plastic model…
BNSF accepted some of its Dash-9’s in a less than complete paint job, but not in primer. UP for years received its power in yellow and gray only, with the red trim and lettering applied by the railroad.
NS seems to be the biggest culprit, operating grey primer only units. The only ID being a number on the cab side and ns below it… Some of thses units seem to be in primer for an excessive period of time especially when in interchange and off line. I guess," ya run em til ya wreck em, then ya gotta paint em?"
I caught a SD70m-2 here as a Ghost, keep getting them with tarps and no hoods
They are waiting for grafitti/tagging 
You know - free paint!
Let’s not give the idiots any ideas;even though NS’s scheme is rather bland,
I don’t think that’s the kind of color we would like to see.
Years ago, EMD was having units painted, even assembled, at the Juniata shops in Altoona because the London Ont plant didn’t have the capacity. These shops now belong to NS.
Guess it wasn’t real smart to close down LaGrange.