Nostalgia & History > WP Old and New-Which do You Prefer?

Decided we needed a little WP for a Saturday afternoon, so here's a few shots of the WP 710 and 729 in both orange and silver and Perleman green. Which paint scheme do you guys prefer?-BMT

First shot of both 710 and 729 working side by side taken in November 1973 by Mike Johnson. IIRC this was taken at Oroville (Ca).

Second shot of the 710 at Oroville in November '73 by Mike Johnson.

Third shot of the 710 in green at Oroville, September 1975 taken by myself.

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Here's the WP 729 taken at Oroville by Mike Johnson in September 1974.-BMT

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Great images, I've always been a fan of the Perlman Green and the New Image paint job.

Ditto on the Perlman green. The orange contrasts better against the dark green.

Kent in Carmel Valley

Like em both!

silver and orange!

Awww, do I have to choose?

I agree with Dan, I like both.

Dave

It's a tough call, but I'd have to say orange & silver, especially on the cab units.

One vote for......

Orange and Silver.

knightswell Wrote:
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> It's a tough call, but I'd have to say orange &
> silver, especially on the cab units.


Ah yes, cab units. Well here's one in each color. Thes two photos are also by Mike Johnson. The first taken in November 1978, the second May 1976.-BMT

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Correction on the 918 photo - it was taken in 1978. In '76 she was still in WP grunge (which looked pretty cool too). Very nice photos by the way.

To elaborate on what I like best, during the 70's when I was growing up I definitely preferred orange and silver because I didn't remember that scheme. I thought green was awful. But 25 years later even the green has some nostalgic value (lots actually).

danf Wrote:
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> Correction on the 918 photo - it was taken in
> 1978. In '76 she was still in WP grunge (which
> looked pretty cool too). Very nice photos by the
> way.
>
> To elaborate on what I like best, during the 70's
> when I was growing up I definitely preferred
> orange and silver because I didn't remember that
> scheme. I thought green was awful. But 25 years
> later even the green has some nostalgia value
> (lots actually).

I'll have to take you word for it as Mike is deceased and I can't ask him. I just went by the dates on the slides from his collection. Here's a couple of shots of the 918 and 917 taken in November '75 and the 918 is still in orange and silver although the 917 is in green.-BMT

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This is not unlike the Black Widow vs the Bloody Nose issue. I prefer the BW, and the Silver/Orange, but also I feel that the Green/Orange, especially as applied to the F's, has a more traditional RR appearance than did the Silver/Orange, somewhat akin to the NS Thouroughbred scheme. AA

Stanford White
Carmel Valley, CA

Wow! Even better yet.

917 was the first F7 (along with 914 which never ran after being repainted) to be painted green. They were painted in 1972. 917 received a second green paint job about the same time 918 and 921 were repainted in green in early 1978. 913 was repainted orange and silver (from solid orange) about the same time - (March 1978).

UPNW2-1083 Wrote:
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> Which paint scheme do you guys prefer?-BMT

Silver and orange, hands down.

The green got a little more palatable after they started adding some solid orange areas to it, but not much.

This question really should be asked with a second question of the age of the responder! I wonder if anyone older than I am, 55, liked the green/orange better than the classic orange and silver? Probably the same would go for the SP black widow or gray/scarlet.

The WP orange and silver were a classic railroad style scheme from the 1940s. Similar color banding, similar curves. This is the paint styling that dieselized the railroads. The green/orange, in which the shade of green changed over time, was much more typical of railroads that wanted to simplify their paint schemes for cost reasons. Remember, WP was in great financial difficulty in the early 1970s, and not having to use the more labor instensive colors to apply as well as clean made sense.

No question, I look at the classic WP orange and silver to the ultimate WP paint scheme, whether on the Fs on the CZ or a four unit set of brand new U30Bs on the High Line. Sure, they got ratty looking at the end, and WP had considered dropping the silver all together before with the all-orange Fs (and of course the GP35 3003), but I consider it to be the best the WP ever looked.

Lee Hower
Sacramento

Here's another vote for the silver and orange. That was an especially attractive paint scheme when it was clean, shiny, and in good condition. I used to enjoy watching the power changes in Salt Lake City back in the late 1950's when both the Rio Grande's silver, Aspen Gold, and 4 black stripes and the WP's silver and orange F units were next to each other. The power that had just come in to the SLC station might be a bit dirtier from its run, but it wasn't much dirtier, and they both looked great, they were both on a par with the Santa Fe's red & silver Warbonnets, or SP's Daylight paint schemes IMHO.

Con

topper Wrote:
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> UPNW2-1083 Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
>
> > Which paint scheme do you guys prefer?-BMT
>
> Silver and orange, hands down.
>
> The green got a little more palatable after they
> started adding some solid orange areas to it, but
> not much.


Highball the Old Head opinion! <g>

This youngin' prefers the New Image in either original Perlman Green with little orange highlights or especially in the V3 New Image scheme. That solid orange nose delivered on the Geep 40 Dash Two's and repainted on many other units before the first year of mega mergers looked great!


-Ryan aka "espeeboy"
usually on the ex-WP Oakland Sub MP11.2
Yo BunnyMan, if you guys would get out into the sun a little earlier, I'll come out and shoot that Pizza Box...

I recall the first repaint, we were at Stockton for a shop tour of WP's shop
and SN 711 just rolled out from the paint booth, she shined like new money.
This was 11-06-71 I think, as that was many moons ago,the fans on the tour liked the
the colors but didn't like that this meant the end for the Zepher colors.There
is a postcard out there showing WP 3508 new in the orange and silver colors brand new
fresh from LaGrange that is the best view of the old colors I seen It was taken in 1966.The early enamal paint didn't hold up well as the silver dissapeared with all the chemical washings and the ultraviolent sun damage out in the desert heat, plus all the tunnels.

mcfflyer Wrote:

>
> The WP orange and silver were a classic railroad
> style scheme from the 1940s. Similar color
> banding, similar curves. This is the paint
> styling that dieselized the railroads. The
> green/orange, in which the shade of green changed
> over time, was much more typical of railroads that
> wanted to simplify their paint schemes for cost
> reasons. Remember, WP was in great financial
> difficulty in the early 1970s, and not having to
> use the more labor instensive colors to apply as
> well as clean made sense.
>
>
> Lee Hower
> Sacramento

These are good points. Many of the railroads which still had F-units in the 1970s (Soo, Milwaukee Road, BN, PC & Conrail) also painted in simpler schemes. Given the desire for simplification, I thought the WP did a particularly good job in using orange accents on the WP F-units. Spelling out the name of the railroad in large orange letters implies a proud company.

Regrettably, I've never seen the green WP Fs. However, when Athearn produced a green F-7/GP-7 set as part of its Special Edition series, I bought one as soon as I heard my local hobby shop had it for sale.

Dave