On the Model Railroader forum, there was a thread pertining to paint schemes people do not like. BNSF was mentioned.
I suggested that BNSF should go back to the warbonnet for its locomotives. I further suggested it use the “Santa Fe” name for the company. Reason is that “Santa Fe” the name and the warbonnet are recognized around the world.
How many people in the J. Q. Public world have even heard of BNSF Railway? The full name is too long and nobody can recall the initials.
The swoosh BNSF logo did not get any praise in the MR forum.
I would like to know the opinions in the Trains forum.
I don’t care for the warbonet paint unless it is on a E or an F unit…the current colors look nice although I’d bring back the Santa Fe name. A name with vowels that can be pronounced is always nicer.
A big YES to both ideas. I can’t understand the corporate mentality that seeks to wipe out all vestiges of Americana as soon as they buy a chunk of it. Why not add to this by painting the engines in the styles and colors of the absorbed roads… For instance, CSX would have engines painted as ACL, SAL, Clinchfield, L&N, C&O, B&O and others with the CSX property marking beneath the cab windows. It wouldn’t cost any more to do so, and it would be an excellent public relations tactic.
When you say “the full name is too long”, are you referring to Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railway? The railroad dropped this “long” full name. The railroad is now simply BNSF Railway. The parent/holding company is Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corporation.
Remember that Santa Fe was not the official railroad name either. The full name was Atchison Topeka and Santa Fe Railway. What a mouthful. What to get more complicated? Well in 1968 the railroad spun off a holding/parent company called Santa Fe Industries. And then after the failed Southern Pacific merger attempt in the mid 80’s this parent company was renamed Santa Fe Pacific Corporation. When it comes to name stability, Union Pacific sure does it right. The most complicated you can get with their corporate name is Union Pacific Corporation.
Don’t get me wrong, I’d sure love to see the Warbonnet and old name brought back. But as much as we would all like this, BNSF colors and lettering are here to stay.
Yes, I was aware they shortened the name to initials. I doubt it has much public recognition. I would bet more people are familiar with “Sante Fe Railway”.
I would agree that Union Pacific has a better name from the standpoint of public recognition.
I also think the old slogan “Santa Fe all the Way” should still be appropriate. Can you think of a slogan for BNSF?
A rose is a rose, is a rose…etc. So, the current name, and the swoosh, do not bother me. I liked the warbonnets, the bluebonnets, and even the Grinsteins, as well as the big sky blue that GN once tried out.
What I’m glad of is that the current color employed is NOT cascade green, Chinese Red, or (god forbid) armor yellow.
My bet is that we won’t see anymore warbonnets because there are enough former BN people still in the ranks who would feel that the gesture was some indication that SF is the superior entity in the partnership
Thanks for posting your opinions. Sorry if I did not explain my opinion very well. I did not mean to say BNSF is in business for our entertainment.
My [2c] … I think the public easily recognizes “Union Pacific” . The BNSF does not have such public recognition. From a marketing standpoint, the business should have a better name that everybody recognizes. Now it’s "Union Pacififc and “The Other Guys” operating railroads in the western two thirds of the USA.
The best answer in my humble opinion is “Santa Fe”.
What about CSX? I bet more people know what BNSF means than CSX. In fact, I don’t think CSX’s full meaning was ever spelled out on any of their locomotives or anything. Only us railfans probably would know it meant Chessie, Seaboard and the multiplication symbol.
I think more people know what BNSF means than you think, so I think BNSF should stay the way it is. I like the warbonnet, but I don’t think there’s any use in bringing back a paint scheme of a former railroad and making it standard. There’s no way the BNSF could “be” the Santa Fe again, because they aren’t. I am glad though that there’s as many warbonnet locomotives surviving that there are.
Remember, though, didn’t BNSF paint some of its earliest new SD75I/M’s and Dash 9’s with the warbonnet paint scheme? Apparently they decided that it wouldn’t work. I think that probably a big part of it was the BN. Heritage I was based on the Burlington Northern predicessors, and the Heritage II was based on the Santa Fe scheme. Now that it’s been more than a decade since BNSF was formed, they now have an image all to their own…enter “Heritage III” and the swoosh.
CSX should keep it’s name, it fits well, and uses the names of it’s past too. Heck, you can’t call it just B&O, Clinchfield, etc, brecause then you’d leave out a good majority of it’s past. The same goes for BNSF. If you called it “Santa Fe”, you’d be forgetting BN, GN, NP, CB&Q, etc.