I was just informed on Facebook that BNSF has painted an SD70-aCe in our beloved FRISCO Orange and White #1876. Can anyone confirm this or are they just in the planning phase at this point?
It's probably just part of the yearly prank that people play about the BNSF heritage units. Normally it doesn't come till April 1st. I wouldn't hold your breath guys. Ethan
April 1st is just two months away. If you lived in Maine you would be excited to see that coming so let the foolishness begin.
I went to the site listed, and it doesn't say anything about BNSF actually painting any heritage fleet engines. The paint schemes posted back in 2011 are the brain child of one of the men on that site. I would love to see it happen, but there is no indication on this site that the painting has happened. Terry
I haven't seen anything on my facebook. Also I remember seeing something in Trains magazine a couple months back, where the president of BNSF said that BNSF would not do any Heritage paint schemes. One other thing... The Frisco Heritage Unit diagram on that site listed don't look that good. The coonskin should be on the nose(with FRISCO in it not the engine's road number) and regular Frisco style numbers should be on the side of the cab. Also it may just be me, but the large FRISCO lettering on the side of the engine seems abit high. Hopefully sometime this week I can post one of my heritage unit designs. I spent over three hours on it(I was in a hospital waiting room, with no WiFi, while my little brother was being checked on after falling off the roof and breaking his nose. He's perfectly fine now.) My drawing is of a SD70ACe wearing the Racehorse colors.
"Heritage" locomotives, to my mind look as doofy as Lionel's silly Texas Special fantasy schemes! They should be right up the alley for Walthers and Con-Cor and their fictitious paint schemes. The paint schemes that EMD and ALCO designed for E-6's or PA streamliners really look hokey on modern engines. Just my opinion... Tom
It is unfortunate that BNSF wont do it. They have some really good looking past schemes that would be nice to see on the rails again.
Thank you Tom. It truthfully isn't all that hard. It just time consuming. The templates for the locomotives are found at paintshop.railfan.net .
TAG1014 has the right idea. The heritage color schemes look terrible on these big modern diesels. I remember the Wabash E-6 and PA's when they were first painted. The Bluebird colors looked racy and impressive. When Wabash began painting their hood units - GP9's and such - they looked awkward. I felt they should be solid blue or some other arrangement. Nostalgia doesn't go well with work units.
