BNSF was never my favorite railroad nor did it have my favorite paint scheme, but I grew to like it moreso than i did when they first merged. But now that they have decided to get rid of 'Burlington Northern & Santa Fe" and the warbonnet and replace it with that incredibly ugly italisized BNSF with the fading line underneath it, Ive completely lost faith in who ever is at the head of their design department. This has taken away from the classic design that they had before and replaced it with a halfassed attempt at a ‘modern’ look. I hope that somebody realizes what they did before they can ugly up too many locomotives.
I think whoever is in charge of the department for design and implementation has zero immagination! Some flunky must have been assigned the task and did a 'just enough to get by ’ type of scheme. Very bland and slowly trying to eliminate any reference to the Santa Fe.
I agree with you, however, you have to remember that American transportation companies often “Try” to present the image that: They are viable, Fresh and Innovative. One of the easiest ways to “Attempt” to present this image is by changing or modifying a logo and/or paint scheme.
Young adverstising executives today don’t want their companies viewed by customers or the general public as “obsolete relics clinging to the past”, so this has become quite common. I remember in the early 90s, my transit company’s sudden desire to change an already popular paint scheme. Many of us did not like the new “Cheesy Yupee” look but it did appeal to the under 30 crowd and the oddballs that worked in the local media.
The airline industry has been a good example of this. Some companies (before they were bought out or bankrupted) kept paint schemes for years. Suddenly in the 80s colors and styles were changing left and right.
I will miss the links to the Santa Fe. It is a “little” bit of a consolation that at least the Great Northern is still being represented in the overall paint scheme. I’ve always thought that the Top Brass should restore a couple of the vintage Santa Fe diesels that were in storage to operating condition and run them occasionally on executive service and/or public runs. (Do they still have the Santa Fe F Units? Or did they finally donate them).
I know that this is just an unlikely fantasy.
I saw a website where they got rid of those beautiful paired BN Executuve F units that were rebuilt to GP38-2 standards back in the late 80s or early 90s. The units were for sale.
AntonioFP45 is more on the mark than any of us care to imagine. Actually, what BNSF did is relatively conservative compared to what’s been done in other businesses. A prime example of radical change was Braniff Airways in the late 1960’s when Wells, Rich and Greene became their ad agency and re-designed everything under “The End of the Plain Plane” campaign.
As far as the vanishing reference to the predecessors, this may be an attempt to maintain employee morale and avoid “Red Team” vs “Green Team” (Penn Central) problems. After all, Cascade Green was completely different from its predecessor colors.
I just found out about that like five minutes before I came on here, and it is the worst logo I have seen in ages! I like their paint scheme okay, but the new logo is just plain pathetic. The old santa fe style logo was infinitely better than that! Surprisingly enough, it looks an aweful lot like a little doodle I was doing in my spare time on the side of my notebook. I like to make up logos like that, and most of them are crap which I never want to see on any real train. That was one of them!
The BN F units have been donated to the Illinois Railroad Museum. The Santa Fe loco collection(including the Fs) was donated to the California State Railroad Museum years ago.
I am almost afraid to admit it, but I like it. Yes, I understand the loss of ties to history. But as far design goes, I kind alike it. Guess I will hav towait on purchaseing my new HO Pumpkin Dash 9… like to get the new logo.
I know we are all probably flogging a dead horse with this topic seeing as there is nothing we can really do about it. But the point is, you don’t see any of the other major railroads going out and making drastic changes. Take the UP, how long have they used the red, white, and blue shield? And another thing, the new, “flashy, hip, cool” logo sure doesn’t appeal any better to the younger crowd either, and I would know, I’M 19!
I must admit that I like the new logo; don’t particularly like the placement of it on the nose of H2 units. Hopefully there will be some fine-tuning of the new paint scheme as far as the nose goes.
Yes, I loved the Warbonnet and spent many wonderful hours photographing it. But the Warbonnet was uniquely Santa Fe, and BNSF management (Rob Krebs) was acutely aware of the fact that adapting the warbonnet as a BNSF corporate symbol would advertise the whole merger as a Santa Fe takeover…not a good thing when you are trying to build a unified team. Remember when the BN folks proposed that God-awful warbonnet based on the “Grinstein Green” colors? How would that have gone over on the Santa Fe side of the company?
Keep in mind that the original BNSF logo was not the product of a Madison Avenue stylist. Shortly after the merger, a person in the public relations department was told to make a logo for use at a corporate function. He did what others had done–added “Burlington Northern” around the original “Santa Fe” logo just for this project. Krebs saw it in the office and said “That’s it…” and that was all that was necessary to make it an official logo. I liked it as a traditional railway logo, but I always thought it was lacking in projecting a modern image. My source for this particular story? The guy who showed the logo to Krebs!
The H-1 paint scheme? Same kind of deal…it was done by railroad mechanical people using the Great Northern-inspired colors, sans yellow borders. “Warbonnets” author Mark Lynn, a former Santa Fe roadmaster now employed by CP Rail, dropped Krebs a note and suggested adding the yellow borders between colors, a la GN. Krebs agreed and it was done. Professional graphics input? None that I’m aware of. And I think the H-1 paint is awesome on an SD40-2.
Bottom line: at the time of the merger and well after, Krebs and other managers saw the corporate image as a distraction from the real business of running the railroad and integrating two syst
I agree that we can’t really do anything about it, but it can be fun at times to gripe. I just don’t get it though? Why change the logo (for the engines) just because they changed the name? The new name is okay, and most people called it the BNSF anyway. However, on the engines it already said BNSF on the sides and front, and it just looked so much better than the new one. I only ever saw the full Burlington Northern & Santa Fe Railway (a. k. a. the mouthful) circular logo on railroad trucks, buildings, and freight cars (mainly auto racks and piggyback cars), so they could have changed the logo for those if they wanted to change it… but why desecrate the engines which railfans and “civilians” (ha, ha) look at most?
Oh and the UP actually sort of needs a paint scheme facelift, but if it ends up looking like BNSF Railway’s job, keep the old one. And, I wi***hey would remove the flag… I’m not being unpatriotic or anything, I just think it doesn’t do anything for the engine or the railroad’s looks.
The logo is O.K., at best. Could be worse, could be better. Whatever the case, in my opinion Nothing will ever be as great a logo as was the Santa fe Chief.