Eastern Railroad Discussion > All Dark Future consist on CSX Q405

CSX Q405-14 had an all Dark Future -GN1(Gold Nose 1) set today. It was the first pure GN1 set I have seen. I like them more in pure sets.

Bruce Friedman

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The rear end of the trailing GE looks strange. The yellow should cover the entire area.

L.G.

Indeed. That SD60I looks great...


CR

The gold does not cover all of the back. See my example. FYI, There is no yellow in this paint scheme. ;)

Rear of freshly painted CSX #2794 GN1 GP38-2.

Bruce Friedman

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My fellow railfan brothers,

There is no yellow in the new CSX paint scheme.

GN1 nose to nose with YN2

Bruce Friedman

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That's exactly what RRnut was talking about. I think it looks pretty strange, too, but I wholeheartedly agree with the sentiment about solid consists. So far the only solid GN1 sets I've gotten have been pairs of new GEs; I eagerly await my first solid consist of EMD standard-cab units -- assuming such a consist ever is assembled. (I would be hoping for a solid set of GE Dash-7s or early Dash-8s, but have little confidence that many, if any, of those will be repainted.)

Excellent shot br!

I like the contrast between the two, and I too agree...GN1 should be the name...no YN in there at all.

Tony :)
Ster2Block

I've said all along that the "YN3" (mis)name had to have originated from somebody who is colorblind...

The color used in the new scheme is quite obviously gold and not yellow...

Thus "GN1" is far more appropriate... I agree.

- BCM

D'olt... I forgot to mention, GREAT SHOTS BRUCE!

- BCM

My 12th grade English teacher taught me that when you create an outline, you must always have a II for your I's, a B for your A's and so forth. How can we have a GN1 if we have no GN2? Having a 1 suggests a number 2. The change to gold is just a different variation of yellow, so it will always be YN3 for me.

CSXDash9

Gold or yellow, they should've painted it from the roof line to the frame. This scheme does look nice though.

Excellent shots illustrating my point by the way.

L.G.

naa , just kidding , you know what they look like.

GN1 without the "1" would be GN = Great Northern. A distinction is necessary.

MN1-"mustard nose 1".But then we'd have the disscusion about is it a French's or Grey Pupo(on 2nd thought,I'm not even going to attempt that spelling..:)shade of "yellow"!Kidding aside,nice shot,even if I think the scheme is lame-NS wins the best of the (eastern)big 2 contest by default!
RAD

What exactly does "YN2" designate? How do they come up with new paint job names and why do companies occasionally redo their scemes.

As an aspiring MBA, we learn in marketing that the package is as important as the contents. That's why McDonald's and Subway have a consistant look to their restaurants, UPS trucks are all brown, Delta jets all look similar etc. It's all part of branding.

It seems railroads are exempt from this. Naturally, it's imprudent to pull off revenue generating equipment just to paint it, but I'm just curious if anyone in the biz has any insight into how the RRs determine what constitutes their "brand."

Those number boards look sorta weird... shouldn't the numbers be bigger?

brfriedm wrote:

> The gold does not cover all of the back. See my example. FYI,
> There is no yellow in this paint scheme. ;)
>
> Rear of freshly painted CSX #2794 GN1 GP38-2.
>
> Bruce Friedman
>
> [%sig%]

I think some railroads do strive for a consistently recognizable brand. Union Pacific comes to mind. Canadian National has also been fairly consistent, and although BNSF's colors have changed quite a bit, the basic "style" of their paint scheme is fairly consistent with earlier ATSF schemes. Norfolk Southern has also had the same paint scheme for quite a long time. CSX seems to be one of the only "big" roads that keeps changing paint schemes every few years.

vasteve wrote:


> As an aspiring MBA, we learn in marketing that the package is
> as important as the contents. That's why McDonald's and Subway
> have a consistant look to their restaurants, UPS trucks are all
> brown, Delta jets all look similar etc. It's all part of
> branding.
>
> It seems railroads are exempt from this. Naturally, it's
> imprudent to pull off revenue generating equipment just to
> paint it, but I'm just curious if anyone in the biz has any
> insight into how the RRs determine what constitutes their
> "brand."
>
> [%sig%]

The YN2, GN1, etc. are railfan appellations for the CSX paint schemes, the railroad has nothing to do with those.

CSX struggled for a while after its merger to settle on a paint scheme. It started out with a blue/gray combination but gradually reduced the blue, apparently to cut costs, until around 1989 or 1990 it reached the "stealth" scheme that was entirely gray except for blue lettering. This generated a storm of criticism about blandness and poor grade-crossing visibilty, and the following year the scheme that became known as "Bright Future" was introduced. Exactly how "Yellow-Nose 1" fit into the transition, I don't remember, because it didn't last very long. "Bright Future" and "YN2" are one and the same, and they were CSX's paint scheme for the better part of 11 years.

The latest change appears to be motivated, once again, by a desire to cut costs and paint maintenance. Both the yellow and the gray on the current CSX scheme have shown tendencies to fade or discolor; the new gold is intended to be more fade-resistant.

While NS and UP have had stable paint schemes, consider the series of changes that have occurred in the airline industry (Delta, US Airways, and United all having had major livery changes during the past 10 years) and BP's recent change from the classic green-yellow shield to their "eco-friendly" flower logo, as other examples of new "paint schemes".

Thanks for the answer. I'm not disputing that other companies don't change schemes (my company just did so and all we manufature is shelfware deliverables ;-). It just seems that the RRs apply them less consistantly. NS and CSX are still running CR stuff, boxcars and hoppers aren't repainted. I read somewhere in here that BNSF is starting to paint some units in the green and white look and refered to it as heritage. (Or maybe that was a joke).

Anyways, it's fun seeing the different stuff. Part of the fun of the hobby.

Steve






> While NS and UP have had stable paint schemes, consider the
> series of changes that have occurred in the airline industry
> (Delta, US Airways, and United all having had major livery
> changes during the past 10 years) and BP's recent change from
> the classic green-yellow shield to their "eco-friendly" flower
> logo, as other examples of new "paint schemes".
>
> [%sig%]

Hey aspiring MBA--you have the makings of an interesting thesis here...

The idea is that the brand is in the forefront of the mind of the purchaser at the time the buying decision is made--right?

Consider the nature of buying railroad services versus, for example, fast food. One has many choices in fast food. Not so in rail services. There are few or no choices. Do rrs' really need to worry about branding? Why waste money on elaborate paint schemes if it doesn't matter? (and I say this from a purely business standpoint, not a railfans!)