One thing that has always bothered me is that EMD always paints their CSX SD70ACe’s with a light blue, instead of a dark blue, and this personally makes the engine look bad. The true CSX YN3 paint scheme, with the dark blue and deluxe gold, is the best looking paint scheme on the rails, IMHO… But I think that the light blue on the SD70ACe’s really do bad to the YN3 and the SD70ACe itself, it just doesnt look right.
Is their a reason that EMD uses a light instead of dark blue?
SD70ACe side shot, clearly showing a light blue:
ES44DC side shot, painted at the GE factory, with the dark blue:
The only EMD’s with dark blue, the ones painted at the CSX shops:
Speaking of bad paint jobs, you should try looking every day at the BNSF “peaches” with their faded orange paint that never did really look quite right:
Perception is everything. I’m sure that CSX simply tells GE and EMD a paint number and away they go.
I’m also sure that if you coupled the three locomotives together, they’d look remarkably the same. Your examples are shown in varying lighting and background situations.
Per a story in one of the modelling mags some years back, a fellow acquired a sample of the actual paint that his prototype of choice used. He painted a model locomotive with it, and when he showed it to his fellow modellers, he was told in no uncertain terms that it was the wrong color.
There was a recent picture on railpictures.net showing a line of CSX locos, and the EMD SD90 (? don’t remember) had a faded yellow that looked like crap. All the GEs looked great.
Lets get this straight … North American Class One railroads don’t give two craps what their equipment looks like. They will paint it and let it rot until theres no paint left and then eventually paint it again.
Freight railroads in North America are such money whores that they don’t spend a single cent unless it needs to be spent. CN repaints all the locomotives they’ve bought through mergers and take overs so the locomotives end up in the CN scheme. Same goes for any other railroad.
If a unit goes into the shops for a major overhaul it’s likely to get painted too. They don’t paint them to make them look good. They never get washed so what is a new coat of paint worth if its not needed?
They are not going to care if one locomotive has a slightly different shade than the other one.
I love my job, I love railroading and I still love trains as a whole, so don’t think I am a grumpy railroader.
It’s ok to have a liking for locomotives, but when you come and complain about colour … I mean come on.
However, I still think that paint scheme is what really makes engine look good or bad. Wouldnt you like a engine in a nice, clean, good looking paint scheme rather than be fading and the paint coming off?
Every paint fades to some extent and some colors hold up better than others. Another factor to consider when comparing photos is how well the film and film processing represent colors. I’ve had a film photo of a BNSF switcher in Heritage colors electronically scanned and re-printed and the shade of orange on the scanned photo was less faded than the original.
How about an air conditioned engine in the summer time, a heated engine in the winter time. Or maybe not having to go through a roll of duct tape to keep the heat in on the engine because there is more rust than metal. Maybe a seat that was comfortable for more than 15 minutes. Hmm, maybe an old engine that doesn’t have the horns right above my head for 12 hours. I could go on for pages and pages without even coming close to the paint. Most of us out here really like our jobs and we have a trillion or more things to worry about rather than if the particular shade of paint matches.
I can only guess that you were joking when you thought this was a serious issue…right?
PICKY PICKY PICKY, The Railroad calls for the designated color of the engine, they pay emd, not otherway around, Railroads not running a beauty contest, of all the things wrong in this world, lets dont get to PICKY PICKY PICKY, back in ww2 days it was just think of all the starving children in europe![zzz]
I must agree with these sentiments…while I would much prefer to see every engine on a particular railroad in very clean and presentable paint, I really don’t care as long as they are running well and making their owners money so we can all continue to see then rolling along, pulling trains that we can continue to watch safely from trackside.
As others have said, when we are rolling down the track, the paint really is one of the last things to cross our minds. Cab onditions are the main priority.
I had one the other day where the toilet for some reason stank so bad I almost puked a couple times. The engineer said he couldn’t even smell it. How he couldn’t is beyond me.
One thing about dark paint is it abosrbs a lot of heat and hides dirt. Lighter paint reflects the heat better but doesn’t hide dirt.
CN just recently re painted a GP9 … of all things. Now why would they do that? Those things are falling apart all over the place and they repainted one. My only guess is the new paint must be some sort of glue.
It always amazes me when people get bent out of shape because railfans actually dare to discuss topics about trains on railfan forums…
why are we all here?? there is a problem about discussing locomotive paint schemes on the TRAINS MAGAZINE forum?? apparently, to some, there is a problem with that…apparently talking about locomotive paintschemes on a forum about trains is not allowed…please give us all the “approved topics” list, so we dont anger his majesty again in the future.
get over yourself…who are you to dictate what we can and cant talk about on a railfan forum? if someone wants to dicsuss paint schemes, whats it to you?
It always amazes me when people get bent out of shape because railfans actually dare to discuss topics about trains on railfan forums…
why are we all here?? there is a problem about discussing locomotive paint schemes on the TRAINS MAGAZINE forum?? apparently, to some, there is a problem with that…apparently talking about locomotive paintschemes on a forum about trains is not allowed…please give us all the “approved topics” list, so we dont anger his majesty again in the future.
get over yourself…who are you to dictate what we can and cant talk about on a railfan forum? if someone wants to dicsuss paint schemes, w
One great example of paint colors is PRR Brunswick Green. It WAS green, but under certain lighting conditions looked as “AS BLACK AS 6 FEET SOWN A COWS TUMMY”… The standard joke was PRR took 1 gallon of black, added 1 drop of dark green, WHALA Brunswick Green.
ge paint that never did really look quite right: