Union Pacific #3391

Trains Magazine Locomotives
1

Well after reading this article on UtahRails.net, I figured to draw an example with the undecorated drawings of Michael Eby

UP #3391

From http://utahrails.net/up/up-diesel-paint.php

In June 1984, an SD40-2, UP 3391, was given a different test scheme that was all-yellow, with black undercarriage (trucks, fuel tank). The unit was finished with standard 20-inch red lettering and numbers, and a red stripe separating the yellow and black paint.

Also in June 1984, UP another SD40-2, number 3479, in a the standard yellow and gray scheme, without red stripes separating the yellow and gray, with just “UP 3479” in 20-inch letters and numbers on the side of the long hood.

These three test paint schemes, on UP (MP) 3030, and UP 3391 and 3479, were really more of an attempt to save painting costs rather than an attempt to give the merged roads a new image. The resulting simplified paint schemes were seen as unsuitable by upper management, including Mr. John Kenefick, the road’s then-president, and were repainted to UP’s standard yellow and gray, with black-edged red lettering.

No official photos are known to exist of these experimental paint schemes.

Notes on 1984 Experimental Schemes

Union Pacific was indeed in search of a new paint scheme at one time. After the merger with the MoPac, there were three locomotives repainted into experimental schemes as a way to simplify the paint scheme for the whole UP/MP fleet. The units were the UP 3030, 3391, and 3479. The UP 3030 was repainted in March 1984 in solid yellow paint, black

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I made a drawing of the 3479 in that experimental scheme. I’ll have to find it and post it.

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The paint job on UP 3479 sounds like the way that UP power was painted in the past when leaving the builder. The builder applied only the yellow and gray paint while the red lettering and trim was applied by UP at Omaha.

4

Really? I never knew that!

Well there’s still some controversy about #3479 and it’s mainly the lettering format. My best guess was that the locomotive was applied in a horizontal line “UP 3479” rather than a vertical position. I’ll post two drawings of the 3479 and hope to see which is correct.

The #3391 was done with all the research there. I based it on the correct modifications UP gave to the SD40-2’s in the 1980’s. Somebody once sold on eBay a painted Athearn model of UP #3391 but colored the anti-skid on the nose green rather than grey.

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I guess UP wasn’t proud of those experimental paint jobs. Several years ago a former SP AC44CW #6344 came out painted mostly all gray. #6344 was no longer a patched SP gray, but freshly-painted overall gray with “Union Pacific” on the long hood. It didn’t take too long for UP to have it repainted into standard UP armor yellow, though not before pics of a mostly-gray #6344 were taken.

At the time of the BN-ATSF merger to form BNSF in the 90s, several locos were painted with experimental schemes or markings too, the most notable were SD60M #9297/#8197 and SD70MAC #9647 “Vomitbonnet”. A couple of ATSF and BN GPs were given BNSF logos while still in their pre-merger ATSF or BN paint. Unlike UP’s experiments in the 1980s, locos wearing BNSF experimental merger paint still linger on many years later in 2010.

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An afterthought, the remote control cabs in the UPY 100 series are painted in solid grey with red lettering outlined in black: http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=821581

http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=1841674

http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=1695755

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Looking at #6344 several times, the locomotive is actually a ‘two-tone gray’ scheme. The undercarriage (Trucks & Fuel Tank) were left in the original SP Gray. Thus the Athearn model introduced sometime back then, was slightly incorrect.