Nostalgia & History > I Have To Hand It To BNSF

Some of you might be wondering why I am posting a photo I took only six months ago on the Nostalgia Discussion. Well, I've gotta give credit where it's due and I grudgingly have to give kudos to BNSF for NOT painting its locomotives as quickly as they could. It's been 14 years since the merger, and there's still a hell of a lot of red/silver and blue/yellow here in Texas. And I assume there's still lots of Cascade green in the West? Now think of Conrail. They painted everything as fast as possible. If they had been more like BNSF, there would have been Reading, Erie Lackawanna, and Lehigh Valley painted units on the rails in the year 1990 and beyond! How cool would that have been? So, hats off to BNSF - it's great to still see the old ATSF!

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I've also pondered this. If BN had been as thrifty with paint as BNSF, Frisco units could have mingled with CB&Q, NP and GN painted power, and Frisco units would have almost made it to the BNSF merger.

SCL1517 Wrote:
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> I've also pondered this. If BN had been as
> thrifty with paint as BNSF, Frisco units could
> have mingled with CB&Q, NP and GN painted power,
> and Frisco units would have almost made it to the
> BNSF merger.


I believe the original BN all former road power painted green by 1977, only seven years after their 1970 merger. If BNSF had followed that timeline, everything would have been orange by about 2002 or 2003!

I believe the ATSF units were new and some actually delivered after the merger. Good economics...just issue a CO to change the lettering. $153.75/unit versus what....$20-30,000 for a re-paint?

AZSP Wrote:

> I believe the ATSF units were new and some
> actually delivered after the merger.

The 700's and 4700-4719 were delivered after the merger, showing up in mid-to-late 1997. The order of SD75I's ending at 8301 that showed up a month or two after the GE's were the last new units delivered in red and silver.