Prototype paint schemes but with freelanced or long lost roadname, who else?

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
1

I’m pondering this idea to arrive at some non Black Widow SP Geeps while incorporating some equiptment not found on the SP while maintaing some sense of plausibility, but taking advantage of models readily available in my scale… From my research I know the Southern Pacific absorbed the previous owner of the branch i’m modeling…

I envision a couple of GP7’s or 9’s wearing SP inspired switcher paint ( silver ends with tiger stripes or pure tiger stripe, SP geeps never wore this scheme, the SD7s however, were delivered in these colors and retained them until the introduction of black widow) sub lettered for the SP and sporting SP number sequences and typical SP details… Seems like a equitible solution to me.

Dave

2

Dave,

Just two comments…

It’s your railroad. Do what you want.[^]

There is a prototype for everything.[swg]

Cheers,
George

3

Why not paint a GP-7 in the “Daylight” scheme? SP subsidiary Cotton Belt did.

OR, you could really go hog wild and paint the GP-7’s in the same paint scheme originally used for the Cotton Belt’s FT’s.

Andre

4

In the tradition of “there’s a prototype for everything” some shortline (possibly the resurected NWP) painted their Geeps in black widow w/ the successor road name.

5

It would be interesting if CSX could paint locomotives in predecessor schemes such as ACL, C&O, L&N, NC&StL, NYC and WofA plus other railroads that they now own, but in YN2 (Bright Future) or YN3 (Dark Future) CSX colors. Also does CSX now own the NEW YORK CENTRAL cigar band herald since they now run trains on former NYC tracks.

6

I’ve done something similar. My diesels are painted in a Reading RR inspired scheme, but with a fictitious railroad name (from alphabet sheet decals).

As stated above, “it’s your railroad.”

7

CBNS (Cape Breton &Central Nova Scotia) a subsidiary of Railtex has schemes of several well known RR’s including BN, In fact there are schemes that I don’t even recognise. One of them may have been the Dixie Route as it is yellow and black and very old. Might even be first generation diesel.

Fergie

8

A real close match you might want to consider is the freelanced model railroad UTAH BELT built by eric bowman…if you get a chance check it out…he uses the SP grey but incoorperated the UP armor yellow with black safety striping on his locomotives…for a free lanced RR, it is a really nice paint scheme… the UTAH BELT is in many issues of MRR magazine and is currently in the 2006 Great Model Railroads which you can purchase from Kalmbach publications… chuck

9

I’ve tried to come up with a somewhat prototype inspired paint scheme for my freelanced Piedmont Southern. I based the colors on two of my favorite railroads; the Interstate (a coal hauling railroad in southwestern Virginia that was absorbed by the Southern in the 1960’s) and the Wellsville, Addison and Galeton (a Pennsylvania shortline in north central PA). I used Floquil’s reefer orange and antique white.

For the lettering, I used another favorite: the speed lettering of the Western Maryland. They are custom decals from Rail Graphics, who can provide your decals in a large number of railroad fonts.
Here’s a photo:

Dale Latham