I was at a chess tournament today. I play chess. I noticed that one of the assistant coaches had on a SKO hat. I asked about it and he told me about this Heart of the Heartland organization that is in southeast Kansas. Long story short I asked if they had any Frisco equipment and he said tons of freight cars, signals, and other things. He said that they have a GE 70-ton locomotive in black and yellow scheme with road #111. Did Frisco own any GE-70 ton locomotives? When did Frisco use these?
The Frisco did indeed have one GE 70-ton switcher, but only briefly. When the Frisco acquired the Okmulgee Northern (ON) Railroad in 1964, they inherited ON 7. It was a stock GE 70-ton, 500 HP, end-cab switcher. Unfortunately, the SLSF had little use for this unit, and it sat around for several months with little or no use until it was sold in September, 1965, to U.S. Railway Equipment Co. While they had it, the Frisco assigned the GE 70-ton unit road number SLSF 12. It was painted in a light shade of blue, and received yellow standard, for the time, Frisco lettering on the engine hood and a yellow number 12 on the cab sides below the window. I believe there is a picture of SLSF 12 posted somewhere on these frisco.org pages. I remember seeing it several months ago when we were talking about what shade of blue to use to model SLSF 12. Microscale 87-85 decals will serve well for the lettering and numbering. Ken
Found a picture of the GE 70-ton locomotive SLSF 12. Ethan, on the Frisco SLSF 111 was an ALCo RS-1. All of our RS-1 units were retired and scrapped. During the 2009 Frisco convention, I did not see any black and yellow Frisco units at the Heart of the Heartlands Museum in Carona, KS.
Keith, This photos shows the blue much better than Frisco in Color. It almost has a Cub Scout uniform feel to it. Was this the original color when it was still owned by the Okmulgee Northern? Best Regards,
According to everything I have been able to find regarding the 70-ton locomotive, the Frisco did not change the original color They just added the Frisco appellation and numbers.
This presents me with a problem. I have a Spectrum GE 70 tonner which is undecorated and in its original box. I have ordered decals and am preparing to paint it. But what shade of blue? Both look good, both look correct. Maybe I will try something in between so the numbers and lettering show up better. I have had this problem with some of my B&O equipment. All blues look different. Oh, for the days of black locomotives. If anyone can help, I will appreciate it.
Did any of the group members come up with a color mix for the 70 tonner from the Okmulgee Northern? I am trying to paint one but the photograph in the Frisco books seem very dark and are difficult to determine what shade of blue they were. Any help would be appreciated. Larry the Mop Guy
Look at the photograph that I posted. The color balance is very good. The yellow on the FA-1 is good, so the color of blue should be true. It comes out to be very nearly MoP Jenks blue, possibly a little faded by the sun.
Glad that this one has come back to the activity thread. Ken, can you or anyone else vouch for why it was blue? I have to assume that this was the Okmulgee Northern scheme, similar to the gray and maroon of the Northeastern Oklahoma (NEO) units. Best Regards,
Maybe it's me, but SLSF 12 looks to be more Cerulean, aka "Eagle Blue", than Jenks blue, which is basically navy blue.
It looks like weathered "Jenks" blue to me. You can get pretty close with a 50-50 mix of Floquil dark blue and light blue. This assumes you can find them or are lucky enough to still have both. GS
Model Master acrylic by Testors #4658 Transparent Blue looks to me to be awfully close. https://www.testors.com/product-catalog/testors-brands/model-master/acrylic-paint/bottles
