The Missouri Pacific blue & grey freight scheme. The passenger scheme was equally elegant, but it was applied to E units and PAs not Fs.
UP Fs looked really cool:
Then:
ATSF Warbonnet
ATSF Blue Bonnet
SP Daylight
SP Black Widow
ACL “Champion”
- Santa Fe
- PRR Tuscan Red
- PRR Brunswick Green
- Lehigh Valley
- Reading
-
ATSF Warbonnet
-
SP Daylight
Best?
ATSF freight blue/yellow
ATSF Warbonnet - skipped the Kato model, never saw in real life, E8A/B is king!
SP Blackwidow - my favorite
NYC - Lightning Stripe (good stand-in)
B&O Blue/grey - so handsome I would buy F7A/B set in that roadname if the only
one available in N wasn’t Bachmann.
Northern Pacific greens is very handsome but I think, passenger.
MoPac - also handsome
Texas (Pacific?) in red/white named after horses
UP is not bad, but the nose looks better grey on top, rather than green.
Hard to say really. Personally I like the Lehigh Valley scheme, though NYC Lightning stripe, SP Daylight, Northern Pacific and Atlantic Coast Line also look very nice. The new RTR F7s from Athearn in NP livery are very stylish!
BEST:
1.1 ATSF Warbonnet with stainless sides
1.2 ATSF Warbonnet
2. SP Black Widow
3. ATSF Blue Bonnet
4 SP Daylight
5. NH McGinnis
I like the UP scheme but against the others it´s to “simple” !!!
Today some preserved engines have nice scheme´s too!
WORST:
PRR all schemes - don´t ask why, I couldn´t give an answer! I don´t like them.
I personnally like the RIo Grande’s single strip scheme.
Then I would say the SF Warbonnet
and the WS scheme looks very good too.
All N.P. paint schemes. Of course I’m sorta partial to N.P. However, their freight units where black, a color some do not care for, imagine that?!?
FYI, if I’m not mistaken no real F units were ever painted in the beloved Daylight scheme. Only the E’ units and Alco PA’s ever saw “the light of Day” so to speak. LOL
Beautiful scheme, that Daylight paint, but it never made the F’s.
Take care.
Greg
ATSF Warbonnet
I vote for the B&O blue, gray, black scheme, I like the original scheme on the real early F3s’, the trucks on a picture I saw were painted gray. Chicken wire on the side too, no stainless.
My second choice would be the RI passenger.
Wabash Bluebird always looked good to me. otherwise I would have to say Santa Fe Warbonnet, especially the rare blue bonnet
Not truly SP units, but the Cotton Belt did have a FP-7 (#306) in the Daylight scheme.
There really hasn’t ever been a bad F paint scheme, but the Lehigh and New England, Reading , Lehigh, (cornell red and black), Boston & Maine, PRR (both tuscan and brunswick w/ 5 dulux stripes), NYC 'Lightning Stripes, and the B&O early blue& gray stand out as consevative Eastern motive power. Out west, the early WP scheme, the ATSF ‘warbonnet’ and SP’s Black Widows are exciting. Northern Pacific and Great Northern shemes were very good, as were early Rock Island F units. ACL and Central of Georgia stand out down south. Did the Seaboard ever do Fs in their citrus color scheme (orange, lemon & lime) or just their E units?
All time best ever- the ATSF ‘warbonnets’
Sorry to disagree, but KCS F units in the white “ghost” scheme are just plain ugly–it certainly did not do justice to an F unit. The E’s were even uglier. The ATSF warbonnet was the best. Don’t know about SAL F’s.
SRVfan- growing up with Penn Central and NW black,and C&O navy, I thought the KCS was beautiful! But I do see how it could have been a bit more colorful.
I agree with jabrown that the Wabash units looked classy. Also the BAR red and grey was good.
And those southern roads, they were not the least bit afraid to use colors.Some of them are spectacular.
It would have to be Penn Central black with the white logo…JUST KIDDING!!! B&O blue, gray, black will always be my favorite with Western Maryland circus (red, white, black) a close second.
Not sure, but NYC may have painted one or two of their F’s that funky Green that they experimented with. It probably would have had a Gold Cigar Band on the nose.
My first choice would have to be NYC Lightning Stripe.