Southern Railway has always used attractive paint schemes but I’m confused on one.
During the 70s (I think) I remember seeing pictures of modern, Southern Railway locomotives in both the Green and White scheme and the Black and White scheme.
(Was it black or a very dark green? I think railfans nicknamed it the “Tuxedo Scheme”).
Which scheme replaced which?
Or were they used simultaneously on certain locomotives. I noticed the the E units only had the Green and White.
Since I’m modeling SCL in the late 60s-early 70s, I thought that it would be appropriate to have a couple of Southern units also as both railroads locomotives could be found on each other’s lines from time to time.
I especially like how those high nosed EMDs looked in the Tuxedo scheme.
Short answer is that the “Tuxedo” paint scheme uses what they call “Tuxedo Black”. It is not a dark green, it is pure black.
There were also green GP7/9s and Alco RSes, and they also brought it back for a few GP60s. Unless I’m mistaken, the black scheme (with some minor detail differences) has been the main scheme from dieselization to NS. I don’t believe that the green scheme was intended to replace the black scheme altogether.
Srr diesel scheme was originally green and white. It stayed this way until delivery of the SD-24’s which were delivered in the new tuxedo scheme. During the 1960’s, all locomotives were re-painted into the tux as they went through major overhauls. Of course not all locos could be repainted all at once so this process took several years. So you could still see Srr locos in green up to at least 1964-65. Their locos all stayed in the tuxedo, including the passenger E units, until Claytor repainted the E-8’s back into the green and white for the revitalized Crescent Limited. The E-8’s stayed green until Srr gave the Crescent to Amtrack in 1979.
The ‘green’ paint scheme came first. Early F’s GP’s and RS’s were delivered in the green paint scheme. It was replaced by the ‘Tuxedo’ black scheme in the 50’s. . In the 1970’s Southern changed the passenger engines back to the green paint scheme. Also a ‘special’ engine(that GP59) was done in Southern green.
This is a brief summary of Southern Diesel paint schemes:
1940s-1949 EMD F units in Black/Imitation Aluminum with Gold separator stripe running beneath lower side step, Passenger units ( EMD E, F and Alco DL-109/110) Green/Imitation Aluminum with Gold separator stripe. The imitation Aluminum was used for an additional side band and 2/3 of the roof. Switchers (EMD and ALCO) Black with Imitation Aluminum lettering.
1949- ~1960. An order of F-7s were delivered with new simplified green/initation aluminum scheme (gold stripe runs above lower side step). All cab units, passenger and freight repainted in this scheme. Switchers and Road switchers (GPs, SDs and RS) receiver green/ imitation aluminum scheme with gold stripe running above the top of the hood doors.
~1960-1982 Tuxcedo scheme-Black/ imitation aluminum with gold separator side on all units. Nose heralds were removed but were replaced with new design beginning in early 1970s. Passenger units (E-8 and FP-7) repainted in green/ imitation aluminum with gold separator stripe in early 1970s.
The E units are at the North Carolina Transpostation Museum in Spencer, NC. At their last Rail Days Event, Norfolk Southern brought the 4610 and had it on display. If you think the pictures look good you should see it in person.