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Discussion Boards => General Discussion => Topic started by: kpsdjs on February 02, 2012, 02:38:56 AM

Title: Railroad's paint names
Post by: kpsdjs on February 02, 2012, 02:38:56 AM
Hello all,
  Here is a fun question; What are some of the "paint scheam" names from different railroads.
  I am a BIGTIME Southern Pacific fan, and enjoy the diff names. Some examples are; The Bloody Nose, Black Widow, Pumpkin, and "The Worlds Most Beautiful Train" The Daylight.
  These are, of course, all SP. Please share any others, any railroad.

Just For Fun,
Kelly
Title: Re: Railroad's paint names
Post by: GoCanes on February 02, 2012, 10:09:01 AM
Sounds fun.   I am having a difficult time mastering the real names (Milwaukee Road Orange vs Seaboard Orange, for instance)

;)
Title: Re: Railroad's paint names
Post by: jonathan on February 02, 2012, 10:32:21 AM
This could be fun, or confusing, when trying to match colors from the prototype.

From my study of the B&O Railroad, the prototype (the real live painters) had a hard time interpreting colors, just like we modelers.

The B&O used "Devils Red" for Cabeese, Royal Blue (B&O Blue) for anything blue and "Red Oxide" or "Bright Red" for box cars during the transition era.

Bright Red has been interpreted as a rusty red oxide and/or a Pinkish Orange depending on which shop painted the equipment, whether it be the prototype or modeler.

After watching the few color film records and viewing the very few color photographs available, I believe the shades are open for personal preference.

Oh... and who knew "graphite" and black had infinite shades of correctness?  ;D

The fact that I'm red/green colorblind doesn't help, either.  :)

Regards,

Jonathan
Title: Re: Railroad's paint names
Post by: jettrainfan on February 02, 2012, 11:19:13 AM
War bonnet is the famous ATSF scheme of a chrome white, red and yellow

Blue bonnet is the ATSF freight scheme of blue and yellow

Peach fuzz is a BNSF unit that seems to have a bright orange (more like a faded orange) that is like the earlier paint scheme of BNSF, but you can easily tell the difference if they were side by side.

BN executives are the BNSF SD80macs (correct me if wrong) that are ex. BN units from the early 90s with a green BNSF on the side.

CSX stealth is a gray body with blue lettering

CSX YN1 is like stealth, but has a lighter gray, and has a yellow nose plus yellow lettering.

CSX YN2 has the yellow nose, still light gray, but some of the parts are blue as well (SD40-2s, AC4400s, almost any freight loco CSX owned)

CSX YN3, also known as "dark future" paint has a yellow nose, yellow lettering and the rest of the body is blue.

NS has 2 differnt paint schemes, one plain and the other is a "horse head" whichis like the name, it has a horse head with the paint.

That's all I can think of off the top of my head, I've been to berea and heard these names reffered to (and I use them myself) so I think they're the offical names.
Title: Re: Railroad's paint names
Post by: Michigan Railfan on February 02, 2012, 11:38:31 AM
Amtrak has phases I-V, as well as a few others such as Cascades and Acela.

Canadian National has the 'Zebra Stripe' scheme, which is diagonal white lines going down the side of the engine.

CN also has the 'North America' scheme, which is 'CN' in white on the side with a grey picture of the North American continent.

Those are all I can think of that haven't been mentioned yet.
Title: Re: Railroad's paint names
Post by: jward on February 02, 2012, 11:42:27 AM
western maryland had 3 different paint schemes for its locomotives in the diesel era.

first was the "fireball"  which was similar to the steam locomotives and used a circular herald with flames coming off it.

next was the "speed lettering" that most people are familiar with: slanted lettering with stripes at either end. most freight cars got painted this way. and lodomotives retained the black paint of the earlier fireball scheme with yellow speed lettering.

last was the "circus" scheme: red and white body with black roof and speed lettering. cabooses were also painted similarly.

these were superseded by chessie system yellow when they took over the western maryland, but wm locomotives were still marked as wm on the cab.
Title: Re: Railroad's paint names
Post by: RAM on February 02, 2012, 07:47:34 PM
War bonnet is the famous ATSF scheme of a chrome white, red and yellow

Blue bonnet is the ATSF freight scheme of blue and yellow
I may be wrong, but I thought the ATSF Blue bonnets were the f units taken out of passenger service and red was replaced with blue.  Most of them got yellow to replace the red.
Title: Re: Railroad's paint names
Post by: kpsdjs on February 02, 2012, 08:02:14 PM
Yeess!

  This is far more fun tan arguing about,...well, anything!

  I have all the SP scheams that I originally mentioned. I also have both "War Bonnet" A+B and "Blue Bonnet" from ATSF.

  jettrainfan mentions ("CSX YN3, also known as "dark future" paint has a yellow nose, yellow lettering and the rest of the body is blue.")

  There is also a "Bright Future" from CSX. I wonder what there thinking was, to name their trains "Dark Future"? Were they worried about their future existence? Seems kind of meccabe, or dark...punintentional.

"Fireball", & "Horse Head" & "Cicus"... I love it. This gives us all a more connected feeling with the "Railroad's" themselves. Brings personality to our models, and gave me something FUN to write about.

  Okay, let's not stop now! I know there are more. I am not sure but I think the SP scheam on Backmann's NEWLY offered "Alco S4 Diesel" is called "Safety First"???

Laughs,
Kelly
Title: Re: Railroad's paint names
Post by: jward on February 02, 2012, 11:08:40 PM
i heard that sp switcher scheme called "tiger stripe" and santa fe's old black and silver scheme called "zebra stripe"......
Title: Re: Railroad's paint names
Post by: kpsdjs on February 02, 2012, 11:34:08 PM
Quote from: jward on February 02, 2012, 11:08:40 PM
i heard that sp switcher scheme called "tiger stripe" and santa fe's old black and silver scheme called "zebra stripe"......

j...Cool. I believe you are right about "Tiger Stripe" being that paint. Although Blink_182_Fan mentioned, "Canadian National has the 'Zebra Stripe' scheme".
   I know not, which Road actually claims "Zebra Stripe".
   Who then claims the "Safety First" scheam?

Looovin' It, Gimme More,
Kelly
Title: Re: Railroad's paint names
Post by: jward on February 03, 2012, 03:31:14 AM
if i am not mistaken, santa fe discontinued their zebra stripe well before cn started theirs. santa fe's sd24s were the last delivered in zebra, the gp20s came in blue and yellow. that would put the end of santa fe's zebra around 1960.

when i visited toronto in 1981, there were still quite a few cn units running around in the black with red cab and nose which preceded their zebra. btw, i have also heard cn's herald referred to as either "noodle" or "lazy 3"......
Title: Re: Railroad's paint names
Post by: rogertra on February 03, 2012, 03:39:59 AM
The CN "Noodle" is a classic design and began a modernisation trend in many corporate logos.  The Nike "Flash" is an example of the infuence of the CN noodle design.

Title: Re: Railroad's paint names
Post by: kpsdjs on February 03, 2012, 03:53:23 AM
 Yes 

   Thanks for the input.

   Isn't this more fun than discusing radii?

   jettrainfan mentioned "Peach fuzz is a BNSF unit". Is that just the colour, or is it their "scheam line" name?

Too Cool,
Kelly
Title: Re: Railroad's paint names
Post by: ebtnut on February 03, 2012, 10:14:36 AM
We here in the northeast termed the Penn Central's PC logo as "two worms in love". 
Title: Re: Railroad's paint names
Post by: jward on February 03, 2012, 10:20:52 AM
Quote from: rogertra on February 03, 2012, 03:39:59 AM
The CN "Noodle" is a classic design and began a modernisation trend in many corporate logos.  The Nike "Flash" is an example of the infuence of the CN noodle design.




and the bnsf flying wedgie as well.....

oh for the days when corporate logos meant something.
Title: Re: Railroad's paint names
Post by: Woody Elmore on February 03, 2012, 11:05:06 AM
My godfather worked for the PRR and they called the striping on the GG-1s "cat whiskers." The greatest paint debate centers around the Pennsy's use of "Brunswick Green" - a color so deep and rich it was often mistaken as black. Seeing a clean GG-1 in the sunlight showed what a nice rich green it was. The Brunswick green was also used on steam engines.

How about the Southern Railway's use of "Virginia Green?"

I was kind of fond of the older Seaboard pullman green with orange and yellow stiping. It must have cost a few bucks to apply and maintain. The yellow and orange represented the sunshine and oranges of Florida.

The CRR of NJ's Blue Comet train was an interesting, colorful train.  It was sky blue with a cream colored band along the windows - the cream color presented the beaches and the blue was the sky and ocean water. A little known fact is that the end of the cars were painted a darker blue. Lionel immortalized the train when it produced one in standard gage. Soprano's fans will recall that Bobby gets killed in a train store buying a Lionel Blue Comet set!
Title: Re: Railroad's paint names
Post by: Desertdweller on February 03, 2012, 01:20:35 PM
Here are a few more:

Paint jobs named for railroad execs:

The MP solid dark blue "Jenk's Blue".

The acid yellow color on some C&NW locomotives:  "Zito Yellow".

Other color names:

GN orange: "Omaha Orange".

GN blue:  "Big Sky Blue".

UP yellow: "Armour Yellow".

UP gray:  "Harbor Mist Gray".

RI light blue:  "Bankruptcy Blue".

RI white:  "Bled White".

Les
Title: Re: Railroad's paint names
Post by: ebtnut on February 03, 2012, 01:25:35 PM
The B&O's President Class Pacifics were originally painted Olive Green with gold trim and striping.  The survivor at the B&O Museum has a version of this scheme, but the green color is too light.  Later in life they recieved the Royal Blue (sometimes referred to as BANDO Blue) color which they kept until retired.  As near as I can ascertain, only the P-7's got the blue paint. 
Title: Re: Railroad's paint names
Post by: GoCanes on February 03, 2012, 02:44:06 PM
Quote from: jettrainfan on February 02, 2012, 11:19:13 AM
War bonnet is the famous ATSF scheme of a chrome white, red and yellow

Blue bonnet is the ATSF freight scheme of blue and yellow

Peach fuzz is a BNSF unit that seems to have a bright orange (more like a faded orange) that is like the earlier paint scheme of BNSF, but you can easily tell the difference if they were side by side.

BN executives are the BNSF SD80macs (correct me if wrong) that are ex. BN units from the early 90s with a green BNSF on the side.

CSX stealth is a gray body with blue lettering

CSX YN1 is like stealth, but has a lighter gray, and has a yellow nose plus yellow lettering.

CSX YN2 has the yellow nose, still light gray, but some of the parts are blue as well (SD40-2s, AC4400s, almost any freight loco CSX owned)

CSX YN3, also known as "dark future" paint has a yellow nose, yellow lettering and the rest of the body is blue.

NS has 2 differnt paint schemes, one plain and the other is a "horse head" whichis like the name, it has a horse head with the paint.

That's all I can think of off the top of my head, I've been to berea and heard these names reffered to (and I use them myself) so I think they're the offical names.


As I'm doing CSX, I thank you for this post  ;)
Title: Re: Railroad's paint names
Post by: Jim Banner on February 03, 2012, 10:44:42 PM
Quote from: Blink_182_Fan on February 02, 2012, 11:38:31 AM
CN also has the 'North America' scheme, which is 'CN' in white on the side with a grey picture of the North American continent.

Ah yes.  The infamous "peeling paint" scheme.  Almost any other colour would have worked.  But grey looked like primer and the edges of North America looked jagged like the edges of peeling paint.

Jim
Title: Re: Railroad's paint names
Post by: kpsdjs on February 03, 2012, 10:58:55 PM
Jim...I'm already 6'4", are you stretching my leg? Or is that their scheam?

   Either way, it tickled my giggle.

Thanks, Gimme More,
Kelly
Title: Re: Railroad's paint names
Post by: Jim Banner on February 03, 2012, 11:48:06 PM
Sorry, Kelly, but I am not going to make you any taller.  While that was not CN's official name for that scheme, it was widely called that around these parts.  I still remember the first locomotive I saw with that grey North America on it and wondering what had gone wrong with the paint job.  It was only later, when I was telling a friend about it, that I was informed that the grey patch was North America.

Jim
Title: Re: Railroad's paint names
Post by: kpsdjs on February 04, 2012, 04:41:52 PM
AHH HAAAHAA HE HE HE HOHO HE HEE.....

   Oops... I forgot I was posting!

TOOO Much Fun, Thanx,
Kelly
Title: Re: Railroad's paint names
Post by: Michigan Railfan on February 05, 2012, 01:31:07 AM
Here's an example of the CN Zebra Stripe scheme on a GP40-2W. I made this in Microsoft Paint, using a blank template from trainiax.net (http://trainiax.net). I painted the entire loco using MS paint.

(http://i1251.photobucket.com/albums/hh560/jkknapp648/gp40-2w-cn.gif)
Title: Re: Railroad's paint names
Post by: PiedmontRR on February 05, 2012, 08:03:22 PM
Quote from: rogertra on February 03, 2012, 03:39:59 AM
The CN "Noodle" is a classic design and began a modernisation trend in many corporate logos.  The Nike "Flash" is an example of the infuence of the CN noodle design.



yeah like Central Vermont.  Looks like they ripped that off.
Title: Re: Railroad's paint names
Post by: Jim Banner on February 05, 2012, 11:08:44 PM
Quote from: PiedmontRR on February 05, 2012, 08:03:22 PM
yeah like Central Vermont.  Looks like they ripped that off.

I am not sure who you think ripped off whom but you must remember that CN owned the Central Vermont at the time they gave them the CV noodle.  It was a change of corporate image and they both abandoned the earlier corporate image of the railways' names on a maple leaf background.

Jim
Title: Re: Railroad's paint names
Post by: Jim Banner on February 05, 2012, 11:45:06 PM
Quote from: jonathan on February 02, 2012, 10:32:21 AM

Bright Red has been interpreted as a rusty red oxide and/or a Pinkish Orange depending on which shop painted the equipment, whether it be the prototype or modeler.

After watching the few color film records and viewing the very few color photographs available, I believe the shades are open for personal preference.


Reds have historically been problematic.  They tended to fade in sunlight.  That is why there were few if any red automobiles before 1950.  I still remember the bright red Renault a friend bought in about 1958.  Within a couple of years, it had faded to that Pinkish Orange colour jonathan mentioned.  I suspect the apparent lack of standardization in reds at that time may have been caused by cars in different stages of fading.  It does not help that colour photos also tend to fade and change colours with time.  And the black and white film of the time was just as bad.  The orthochromatic film then in use showed red as black because it had no sensitivity to red light.

Jim
Title: Re: Railroad's paint names
Post by: Doneldon on February 06, 2012, 03:21:49 AM
Quote from: jettrainfan on February 02, 2012, 11:19:13 AM
Blue bonnet is the ATSF freight scheme of blue and yellow

jtf-
Actually, the freight paint scheme was not called blue bonnet. It was sometimes called "cat's whiskers" or cigar band," but never blue bonnet; it was generally just referred to as "freight." The Santa Fe didn't do blue bonnets because the Delaware and Hudson already had a blue paint scheme which was very similarly shaped to the AT&SFRy war bonnet pattern. There was a yellow warbonnet scheme.


Quote from: Jim Banner on February 05, 2012, 11:45:06 PM
Reds have historically been problematic.  They tended to fade in sunlight.  That is why there were few if any red automobiles before 1950.

Jim-
Sun fading is why we see so few yellow cars and houses. There are sun-safe yellow pigments but they are much, much more expensive than other pigments. This also explains the dearth of orange cars; inexpensive yellow pigments would fade out leaving an anemic shade of red.


Quote from: florynow on February 04, 2012, 10:23:03 AM
Who can tell us how the MP painted their steam engines before 1925?  And why did it go away?

Paul-
With a sprayer?
                                                                              -- D
Title: Re: Railroad's paint names
Post by: Desertdweller on February 06, 2012, 12:33:22 PM
Don,

The AT&SF did have a few F-7's that were painted in the blue warbonnet scheme.  They were former passenger units.  Ed Fulcomer's "Rocky Mountain Railroad Memories" has a picture of one, the 329.  Although the picture itself is black and white.

As for fading red paint, this accounts for the many shades of "Armour Yellow" on UP units.  This yellow has a high red component added.  The color is very rich when fresh, then fades out to a paler yellow.

The Chicago Great Western had a bright red and maroon paint scheme on their Diesels.  This was followed by an all bright red scheme, followed by an all maroon scheme.  As the red faded out of the maroon, the color turned purple!

I belonged to a model railroad club once, and built up an A-B-B-A set of F-7's.  I painted and decalled them for the bright red scheme.  I got so many complaints that they were the wrong color, I finally repainted them in the solid maroon.

Fading red paint on autos is a problem that seems to have never been solved completely.  I remember especially early 50's Dodges and Plymouths that would fade from maroon to purple.  As both maroon and purple are combinations of red and blue, this makes sense.

Les
Title: Re: Railroad's paint names
Post by: Doneldon on February 06, 2012, 07:35:04 PM
Desert-

Yes, there were a few locos painted in a pattern which was reminiscent of the warbonnet scheme but it wasn't the same nor did I ever hear of it being referred to that way. I believe it was basically a test pattern.

Yes, I agree that the automotive industry has solved the pigment problems with red but yellow is still a problem.
                                                                                                                                                                     -- D
Title: Re: Railroad's paint names
Post by: Johnson Bar Jeff on February 07, 2012, 12:04:25 PM
Quote from: Doneldon on February 06, 2012, 03:21:49 AM
The Santa Fe didn't do blue bonnets because the Delaware and Hudson already had a blue paint scheme which was very similarly shaped to the AT&SFRy war bonnet pattern.

I can't swear to the accuracy of my information, but I have read that what happened was that the D&H bought some Alco PA units from AT&SF that were painted in the warbonnet scheme and just replaced the red with the blue and added the D&H shield. Regardless, I think it made for a sharp-looking engine.

Wish I'd checked in here earlier; this is a nice, fun thread.

I've liked the Western Maryland Speed-lettering since I used to see it on cars we'd pass--somewhere--driving from Lancaster to Gettysburg when I was a kid. For reasons unknown I'm also partial to GN "Big Sky Blue."

I remember reading somewhere a long time ago that while the PRR painted boilers Brunswick Green, smokeboxes were painted with something just called "front end paint."  ;D  But my memory could be playing tricks on me about that.
Title: Re: Railroad's paint names
Post by: ebtnut on February 07, 2012, 12:42:48 PM
The WM and the Reading ran a joint service between Harrisburg (Rutherford Yard) and Hagerstown.  You could spot power from both roads at either location.  The junction point was at Shippensburg.  CSX still runs trains on this route.  Rutherford has been reduced to a container and TOFC facility.  As for the PRR they, like a lot of roads, used a heat-resistant paint on the smokeboxes of many locos.  In some cases it was paint; in other cases it was "graphite in oil".  The result was that the smokebox took on a silvery-black color.  This seems to have been more prevelant on passenger power.  The B&O often did the same thing.  If you look at old steam pics of the Southern Pacific, they used an aluminum-based paint that looked almost white. 
Title: Re: Railroad's paint names
Post by: beampaul7 on February 07, 2012, 06:31:54 PM
Has anyone mentioned Rio Grande Gold?
Title: Re: Railroad's paint names
Post by: Michigan Railfan on February 07, 2012, 06:54:24 PM
Here's an example of Grand Trunk's only (I think) paint scheme. I made this as well in Microsoft Paint:

(http://i1251.photobucket.com/albums/hh560/jkknapp648/gp38-2gtw.gif)
Title: Signal lights for Bachmann DCC Turnouts
Post by: KiteFlyer on March 31, 2012, 12:13:07 PM
Jim,

I have a fairly extensive 100% Bachmann HO DCC 5' X 8 ' layout, with reversing loop, motorized turntable w/ Tidmouth Shed, main, siding, a/d track, etc. (landscaping to come later), but cannot see all my DCC Turnouts and therefore am trying to find information on adding signal lights to my Bachmann DCC Turnouts to avoid derailments.  Do you have any recommendations on how to wire in functional signal lights onto the 44130 and 44131 EZ Command DCC Turnouts?
Title: Re: Signal lights for Bachmann DCC Turnouts
Post by: Ken G Price on March 31, 2012, 07:06:48 PM
KiteFlyer
It would be best if you started a new separate post on the subject you are asking.
This post is about an other subject and not signal lights.

Starting a new post will show up on the main general discussion where it will be seen by many more people then maybe just me or one or two others.
Title: Re: Railroad's paint names
Post by: Woody Elmore on April 01, 2012, 08:19:55 AM
The D&H got their warbonnet alcos from the Santa Fe. The Santa Fe used the war bonnet for many years before the D&H came up with the blue version.

The D&H had blue and grey sharknoses.

The ATSF had an experimental yellow warbonnet scheme.

Title: Re: Railroad's paint names
Post by: M1FredQ on April 07, 2012, 10:06:01 AM
Since my son collects the Lionel Nation Series from TM Productions, Lionel Nation Number 6
had a what if Ther e were a F-3 series of Santa-Fe done in Black and Red instead of the
classic Silver /red. They emphasized that Santa Fe had never done this but they thought it
would be a great idea if some one did it

WELL!!!!

Turns out Williams did do it and we bought the F-3's A-B-A  in Black/Red because we really liked it and it
is really cool looking.

WELL

In the latest TRAINS Special Edition on Train-Wrecks there in living colour on page 45 is the

Santa-Fe F-3 in the Black/Red  color scheme!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It was done and Williams has it

So now there is documentation to prove the color scheme was used and it is not a what-if!!!

Thanks!!!!!!!!!! ;D ;D