http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=333876&nseq=0 I am so glad 23 of these beauties are finally back in service!
http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=333876&nseq=0
fixed your link(always hit “Enter” after pasting a link)
The green/white looked good on the standard cabs… but kind of goofy on the widebodies.
Zugmann:-
Yes, I agree that the green/white looks good on low-nose hood units. But I also kinda understand, in a very limited way, where you might think that such a paint scheme looks goofy on wide bodies.
Although I’ve seen quite a few Burlington Northern “Cascade Green, black and white” decorated units, BNSF 8143 sports a color scheme I cannot ever recall seeing on an SD60M.
One last comment: it looks like the front right corner of the fuel tank took quite a pounding. I wonder how that happened?
It’s all personal opinion. I think the widebodies have more horizontal lines as opposed to the standard cabs. Plus I don’t like how the logo is wrapped all int he headlight.
60Ms are fun engines though. Esp. through 40mph crossovers…
What a really nice clear shot of this railroad scene. And I too, wondered about the fuel tank dent…
Very nice photo of a typical North American wheeled diesel generator package.
“Classiest unit on the rails,” is, obviously, subjective - and I’m not impressed by any box with a diesel genset in it. IMHO, it isn’t even the classiest North American diesel-electric - and NO North American diesel will ever make my top twenty classy units list.
Chuck
I see you did not take the advice of Mr. Morgan a few decades ago, and look away.
As far as classy, hands down, it was the ATSF GP60M’s. Dignified, and proper. BN was the last road I would have thought of as “classy”. Heck, they still do not have a uniform appearance after all those years since the merger. I am not just talking variations as in UP, but flat a mixed up message.
BNSF corporate owner Berkshire-Hathaway I don’t think has any “corporate colors” in the way the Ford Motor Company does (the name “Ford” in white script on a blue oval) or the C.& N.W. did (dark green and English Stagecoach Yellow). The closest that B-H may have to corporate colors may be the direct, well-written, black-and-white messages and reports the Company sends to shareholders.
That being said, maybe BNSF needs to change its “pumpkins” color scheme to a more dignified black-and-white - like another American Class 1 carrier whose leading financial performance the other U.S.-based carriers would do well to emulate. But instead of displaying a four-legged equine on the nose of its units, the BNSF “swoosh,” with maybe a touch of either orange or yellow around the letters and the arrow, would do just fine.
BNSF locomotives decorated in black-and-white makes sense for another reason. If any two carriers breach the Mississippi River in a true transcontinental union, current speculation suggests an alignment of Fort Worth with Norfolk. Working towards something resembling a common paint scheme now might serve that purpose well into the future.
I expected to see Uncle Pete’s E9s, the three piece windshields never really appealed to me, but then reading units, I expected diseasels, and not the 844.
Doug
I like the current BNSF swoosh paint job. A lot better than the old heritage orange paint jobs (I was never crazy about 50,000 lines on a freight engine.) And why would they go black and white? Besides the problem with black engines (NS doesn’t run through many deserts), those colors are used by another road. And the customer really doesn’t care if the engine is pink with purple polka dots - they just want their cars delivered and picked up in a timely, safe, and cheap manner.
You get on a b
I have always loved the way the white and green played together on the SD60M’s.
Classiest? That green and white never looked good on those low numbered SD60Ms with the three-piece windshields. The higher-numbered ones look a bit better. But I can think of a hundred locos I’d aim my camera toward before a renumbered BN SD60M (either version) would cross my mind.
Lance
The SD60MAC Demonstrator paint scheme turned out to be the best.
Andrew Falconer
I am with Bob (Fryml) - from a purely observers point - I would like all black and a touch of red ala CBQ. Very classy and tailored.
However for the crews, maybe black wouldn’t be so great. But with all the new materials they make things out of today, would the color really make that much difference? It isn’t like it is being worn next to your skin like a black shirt. And with 116 heat index in western IA today - no color is going to be cool. Even with A/C
Ditto on subjective … at least the current railroad does a better job of keeping that cascade green junk running. I vote for Chinese Red and vermillion/cream or either of the other merger railroad’s (SF’s) paint scheme.
These are classy paint jobs:
http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=831876
http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=824699
http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=2156626
http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=1062594
http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=1739790
Classy paint job.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/wales23/4804825283/
Yeah, it is in a museum, but it runs.
Lance
[sigh]
One of my favorite engine colors was always BN’s green and black paint scheme, specifically applied to the SD-40-2’s but I have never like the white face units. To me the white face alone made them some of the ugliest units.