Following in the UP's footsteps - only doing them one better, the NS has announced they will decorate a number of new locomotives in the heritage schemes representing the past railroads that make up today's NS. No, this is not an April Fool's joke. Look at the following NS plan from their announcement: http://www.nscorp.com/nscportal/nscorp/Media/images/heritage_images.html The NS plans to do full decorations in their heritage colors, not some creative amalgam like the UP did. The NS will apply the heritage colors to new GE and EMD units, one locomotive per road. For me, it will be neat the see PRR, Wabash, VGN, NYC, NKP, etc colors again on the high iron. We can only wish the "Oracle of Omaha" would convince his BNSF managers to do somethig similar for the BNSF! If that would ever happen, what do you think would be best for the Frisco - black & yellow, red & gold, or red/orange & white? I'm a NSC shareowner, and think this is a real class move by them. Ken
Ken, as much as I like the Black & Yellow, by far the classiest scheme the Frisco ever posited (and for that matter any railroad) was the Racehorse red & gold. Looking at the schemes presented by NS really cemented that idea in my mental vision.
The Racehorse/Redbird scheme was neater than all the Supers, El Caps, Cities, Centurys, Zephers all put together! I can't believe the Katos or Walthers of the world can't see their way clear to release a Meteor or Texas Special!!?? Even Lionel in their inept way figured out that a Texas Special "sells!" Or why Overland wouldn't keep a Meteor and/or Texas Special open stock! Tom
Agree, the "Racehorse" scheme would be my pick, even though the Frisco was not known in RR circles as a big passenger road. Note the PRR, NYC, SR and Erie schemes selected are passenger schemes, so there is precident. (Note also how they worked in both the SR passenger and freight schemes!) Ken
Far as I'm concerned all the so called "heritage" paint schemes are just a form of "tokenism" just to get the railfans to shut up! Modern railroads can't forget their "heritage" fast enough! So much for all the "jive" from RR management in the 60's about how the original paint schemes were too costly to apply and maintain and that they had to go to "simplified" or "austerity" paint schemes. Far as I'm concerned the "heritage" schemes really look silly on those over sized contemporary diesels. I hope I've sufficiently offended railroad managers, both living and dead...The Deramuses, the Jenks, the Menks et al... Tom G.
Given the understanding of how much BN hated the Frisco, I don't ever expect to see a heritage line paint scheme. Sorry...
Wow! What ugly designs. Erie in green? The only one that stands out is the WABASH. I'd love to see that one.
A lot of the ruthless post BN-Frisco merger management officials came from the FRISCO! BN employees in their other regions referred to them as the "Frisco Mafia!" Tom G.
I agree with Ken, I think this is a classy move by the Norfolk Southern. I personally like these schemes-they look pretty authentic when you compare them to the Union Pacific Heritage units. I don't think that those are that bad, either (with the exception of the Katy, which in my opinion is awful). The great thing about any of the heritage units is that they give us a tangible link to the fallen flag railroads that many new generations of railfans don't recognize at all or have only seen in photos. I took my son, who was five at the time, to watch the 844 come through Washington Missouri last year. The Mopac heritage unit was tucked in behind it. He said to me "That's Missouri Pacific!" He recognized it because he has a toy wooden diesel in the Mopac Screaming Eagle scheme. It's probably the closest that either of us will ever get to seeing an operating Mop unit. I applaud the NS, and to a lesser extent the UP, for their efforts to honor the railroads that make up their systems today. And more kudos to them for having active steam programs. Pat Moreland, Union Mo.
I guess the so called "heritage" schemes are nice enough--If you'd never seen the originals (Like a Wabash "Bluebird"). I guess these new paint jobs are charged off to advertising, while the originals were "maintenence." Tom
I would very much like to see one of the new modern powered boxcars painted in the Orange & White. That would be a treat. The BNSF "stole" the Toyota contract here in San Antonio right out from under UP. Looks like the Frisco snookered the Sadly Pathetic (SP) and Über Pathetic (UP) group once again! Frisco lives in San Antonio again! Yeah! Now I see the pumpkin brigade daily, and am always looking for Frisco misses from the paint shop.
It's called competition, Manny. Also, since it's 2012, I don't see where the Frisco connection comes in. By the way, those in the know call them diesel-electric locomotives. On the subject of heritage paint schemes, it would be nice if the BNSF team decided to get in on some of that action.
The events that followed 9/11 changed America and the world as well. Railfans were put in the same category as terrorists in some locations to the point one couldn´t even take photos of a train from public property. Backdate to the 80s: an FEC security guard, braindead from birth, even pulled a gun on some Florida railfans who were photographing a Florida East Coast freight from a McDonald´s parking lot in Ft. Lauderdale! Union Pacific has a proud past. I mourn the loss of the SP as do most Espee fans. I started my rail career on the Cotton Belt in Dallas, which by 1967, had been combined with the SP operations at Miller Yard. SSW´s downtown Dallas yard was still in use for switching out cars brought from Miller to spot at local industries. However, read your history book again. E.H. Harrriman attempted to merge UP and SP before WWI and he even had an interest in the Erie and Illinois Central! If Teddy Roosevelt (read Big Brother Government even back then) had permitted Harriman to merge his railroads there would have been a true transcontinental railroad from coast to coast and to the Gulf of Mexico long before Mr. D´s Machine invaded the domain of the steam locomotive. The railroad would have been the Union Pacific! The same fate might had brought the Frisco´s flag down as well as it was part of a plan to expand in the Great Southwest as well! Lucky for Frisco Folks, it didn´t materialize then. Union Pacific´s trade-mark war a few years ago damaged it´s image which had spread to the model railroad industry. One problem encountered was that many promiment shippers had employees in all levels of employment from president to blue collar who were model railroaders too. If ever a railroad found a way to shatter its public relations tool it was UP! The program to restore an image gone wrong was in the Heritage color schemes worn by modern Diesel-Electrics. The schemes chosen have been received with both positive as well as negative results. I personally find the Mopac and Rio Grande schemes to be tops. WP should have been orange and silver, SP in the Black Widow scheme and Katy in the Barriger image since John W. III did save the Katy in the 70s! Though most Katy fans have come to hate anything spelled Deramus it must be remembered that the Katy in 1956 was on the brink of total shutdown with the entire railroad facing abandonment or sell-off much like the Rock Island encountered in the 80s when the Frisco got repainted Cascade Green! Indeed, a spoonfull of sugar doesn´t always help the medicene go down! Deramus was able to save the Katy from such fate with John W. III arriving in 1965 to restore system wide service and employee confidence as well. It does appear that BNSF is ashamed of it´s heritage but perhaps the Friends of BNSF can take proper action to convince it to consider a program started by UP and now followed by Norfolk Southern. Item: Will we see purple CSX units down the road? Gads, what a thought! As far as a Frisco heritage unit, all Frisco fans should voice their desires to our elected officials so BNSF can be approached to insure that a proper color scheme proposal be submitted to BNSF´s corporate communications before a unit rolls out looking much like the UP´s choice for the Katy which doesn´t properly portray the best of the M-K-T in my opinion. It should be noted that Athearn has released GE Diesel-Electric models in HO scale of their own versions of heritage schemes for the likes of the Milwaukee Road, Rio Grande, Great Northern, Rock Island and Western Maryland to name five. I suggested to Frisco members that a Frisco version be submitted to Athearn for consideration before they took it on themselves to release a Frisco model in a scheme that wouldn´t be in the true spirit of the railroad we all love. It was rejected! If BNSF does follow suit with heritage units I think that the red and white should be worn to best represent the Frisco! One member has even posted his ideas on this site as to what the scheme should look like and I feel that his choice was both sound and pratical! Check it out. The Coonskin on the nose is Cool! Joe Toth The Trinity Rivers Bottoms Boomer
