They were former Colorado & Wyoming units; #2002 and #2001 respectively, built in December 1973. The only other railroad that had good taste in paint schemes...
I remember them in Trinidad CO in the mid 1980s. Good to see them still in service. If memory serves they had small fuel tanks.
Since I became aware of these, I had to wonder if C&W piggybacked their order on a Frisco order. It's pretty clear they used the Frisco paint diagrams. The lettering all used the same font the Frisco used, and they even have (or did originally, I didn't catch it in the video) the small "Be Careful" lettering around the stepwell and pilot.
I think it may have been more of an EMD paint diagram than Frisco. If you remember the GPDD35 demo series were in the O/W and the last order of GP35s to the end were delivered in that paint. Perhaps a cost saving measure? But C&W could very well have attached their order to a Frisco batch, that was a very common practice.
The o/w paint diagrams for new units were really EMD diagrams, from the EMD GP35 demo units, which the Frisco helped modify and agreed to. I guess EMD could use them for other roads if needed. My copy of a Frisco E8 paint diagram is an EMD drawing. K
It's known that EMD had stylists that helped railroads design paint schemes. All those cigar band paint schemes on F and E units, even the Frisco ones, are not a coincidence. There are certain differences between the EMD GP35/DD35 demo units that were definitely Frisco touches that made it onto the C&W units. The "Be Careful" wording I mentioned earlier is one of those, as is the font used for numbers and the name on the sides. It's entirely possible the font work was a common font used by EMD. I'm not sure I've seen the "Be Careful" wording on anything but Frisco units and those two C&W GP38-2s. It started on the Frisco in the black and yellow scheme, and continued after that. (I found some photos online of the GP35/DD35 demo units, and the "Be Careful" wording isn't there...)
All great points Paul, great indeed, but we cant loose sight of the GM "Chevy engine Orange", that is the dominate color. Nowhere else is it prevalent other than EMD demonstrators and Frisco, and in this case, a couple C&W Geeps. I would propose Frisco did suggest Black under-frames. Why? Oil leaks are bait for FRA inspectors, and these engines had oil leaks, you just could not seal them entirely, a few quick looks at EMD demos of that period show a lot of Black on the trucks and under-frame, so it makes sense to me.. Notwithstanding the "be careful", or "Engine Start Switch", "Fire Extinguisher Inside", and other stencils, seen on almost any unit at the time, it costs a lot of $$ to paint locos. I would bet our Frisco saved some $$ by using the factory color option, instead of color $$ in add-ons. Interesting observations and comments for sure.
