In the early 1960s UP started to paint boxcars in the armor yellow with a large UP logo and a map of the states UP had tracks in with the slogan “automated railway”.
UP’s rollingstock is plain and drab, which I guess suits UP fine since graffiti is a major problem. Still, I’d like to see UP come out with an updated version of the UP map logo and “Automated Railway” scheme on some of their boxcars and even covered hoppers. KCS came out with a fancy scheme for their covered hoppers a couple of years ago, so why can’t UP?
Up until the 1982 UP+MP+WP merger, Union Pacific boxcars and gondolas equipped with cushioned drawbars were painted in passenger colors, specifically Armour Yellow and Harbormist Gray with silver trucks.
Sometime around 1983, President Flannery (previously the MoPac + W.P. President) decided that all MoPac, W.P., and U.P. boxcars would be painted in the mineral red color you see today. Today as some of those older U.P. cushioned drawbar equipped freight cars go through a carshop for either overhauls or programmed repairs, they’re being repainted in the simplest red color scheme possible with something like a red-white-blue Union Pacific Scotchlite herald attached.
Although I admire the beautiful color scheme that K.C.S. is applying to its newly acquired covered hoppers, painting freight car equipment just one color is significantly less expensive.
Bob, I seem to remember the UP cushion cars as having silver, instead of gray, ends, etc. But you hit on the right explanation for the yellow paint scheme: the presence of cushioning. If you’re lucky, you might catch a WP (or ex-WP) car in this paint scheme, but never MP.
The BNSF runs behind my house. Yesterday I saw a train with a freshly painted yellow covered hopper with the reporting marks CNW and a fresh CNW herald on the side, This was obviously not an old one which had retained its colors. A couple months ago I saw another covered hopper on the UP line in Maplewood, which had SSW reporting marks and the old Cotton Belt blue herald. This was defintely a fresh paint job because I was nearer to the track.
I’m wondering if UP isn’t randomly painting cars in the old color schemes just to keep the trademarks active. Anyone know?
I think the “Be Specific” slogan was used during the 1950s and very early 1960s. About the only way you’ll see it on anything other than a photograph is to have it come bleeding through the most recent coat of paint on a non-revenue car.
Trademark preservation is indeed the reason for some of those specially-lettered freight cars. Everything like that has variants of the paint job that were never seen in regular service (for example, the D&RGW logo with blue and orange highlights). I can’t comment on the CNW car(s), because I haven’t seen one yet. MP, either.
A company in Souith Sioux City, Nebraska named Adcraft, used to screen print the logos for the UP when their shops were in Omaha. As I worked for the sign company, I saw the giant screens used to make the emblems.
The Saint Louis Southwestern covered hopper you describe is something I’ve seen before. My guess is that Union Pacific has a small number of them running around.
As for the CNW covered hopper, did the initials and number appear in in a “Railroad Roman” font, a smaller sans-serif font that C.& N.W. used in later years, or the larger and bolder sans-serif font favored by Union Pacific?
From your description, the CNW covered hopper seems like another “trademark protection” car.
ERICSP:- I feel your pain. Espee did have a nicely utilitarian paint scheme applied to their boxcars. The one I’d like to see today is an Espee Hi-Cube auto parts boxcar painted like the one shown in the attached link.
What style of covered hopper was the CNW car? There are center flow style covered hoppers in yellow that I think were among the last cars shopped at Clinton, IA. They aren’t in regular unit grain train service that I’ve seen. We have an industry at Glidden, IA that uses these cars for shipping it’s product in bulk.
Some are still in almost new like condition. And some aren’t. I wonder if one of those cars is what was seen. I wouldn’t think color of the car would matter to protect a trademark on it.
I’ve seen cars that I know were in their original paint and in good condition to start with. Under the right lighting/weather conditions they looked like that had just come out of the paint shop.
The lettering style reminds me of a covered hopper on the RIP track in Boone a while back. Someone had went to the trouble when hand painting the reporting mark to try to emulate the original CNW font style.
There are at least a couple of SSW covered hoppers and a couple of D&RGW gons with the old logos on them. Also at least one SP hi-cube box car with the Sunset Route logo (this was definitely repainted by UP–SP’s newest box cars and gons, pre-merger, also had this old logo on them).
Haven’t seen any for a while, but I’m pretty sure that Western Pacific’s “Feather River Route” logo was applied by UP to a box car or two. And there is a series of WP box cars that have been stenciled with UP’s old “Overland Route” shield.
Now, as for a CNW car, I’d expect a covered hopper to be in UP gray, with a red, white, and black ball-and-bar logo on it–no other markings like those big black “CNW” initials. Just speculation on my part–haven’t seen anything like it yet.
Jeff, the big yellow “Center Flow” cars that I have a feeling you’re talking about were actually built by Thrall. They aren’t intended for grain service–they have gravity-pneumatic outlets and are used for malt service. The series is CNW 490000-490999. One would be very hard-pressed to find one of these in pristine condition: they had a problem with their end design and virtually all of them have reinforcements applied at the end ribs (just patched over with yellow paint). The cars were also a tagger’s favorite for some reason–I saw some brand-new cars that had already been hit before arriving on CNW property!
Clinton’s last major project was a series of ribbed-side covered hoppers that had been acquired second- or thirdhand. These were repainted in CNW green, with yellow sans-serif lettering. They all had a red, white, and black CNW logo, and a very few had large yellow “CNW” initials besides (rumor has it that UP told them to quit applying the big initials).
Back to UP’s yellow-and-silver cushioned box cars: Very early in the Sixties, it appeared (both from the cars themselves and the advertising of the time) that UP was attempting to get away from using the traditional shield o
Bob, I forgot to respond to your comments on the SP hi-cube box cars. I remember seeing black-and-white photographs of these in Trains and elsewhere, and wondering what the fuss was about–the red and gray didn’t contrast at all in b&w photography (it was years before I realized that SP locomotives had red noses!).
Anyway, one would be very hard-pressed to see one of these SP (or SSW) hi-cube cars in any appealing condition. The paint job is pretty well worn where it still exists, and oftentimes the doors have been replaced by others in just primer or red-oxide paint.
Finally, the car referenced in the photographs is number 615213: don’t know why the first digit is so reluctant to show itself in the pictures.
Thanks Carl, those are the ones. I’m not very observant towards freight car amenities and couldn’t have told you what the outlets were on those cars.
There are some that don’t have too much grafitti yet. There are still a few that are just about free of it, but they are becoming harder to find. Of all CNW cars they seemed to be in the best condition, paint wise. Or maybe I just have low standards for pristine conditions.[(-D]