Nostalgia & History > BN birth: would you have voted for this scheme?

CB&Q SD45 #525 was in Denver on June 28, 1969 when I shot it. It was still the Q then, but the Green Machine was waiting in the wings. SD45's and U23C's were delivered to the CB&Q in this scheme, sans any large lettering. The shot of U23C #467 was taken by Karl Henkels in Galesburg, IL on July 20, 1969.

At least one other unit got this paint scheme: CB&Q GP40 #629. This picture of it is from my mFiles and I have no info, but I believe it is from the Alan Miller collection. A picture of this unit also appears in Hol Wagner's Burlington Northern 1971 Motive Power Annual on page 4. That picture shows the unit with Burlington Northern spelled out below the large BN logo that appears on the cab. The caption reads that the unit was painted at West Burlington in August 1968 and it says it was the 'first unit in Cascade Green'.

There were other 'possible' BN schemes, some of which I and others have posted on TO in the past, but these were the early experiments.

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I think BN got it right with the Cascade Green and black. This scheme never did much for me. It's a shame we never got to see Chinese red SD45's!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/26/15 09:31 by CPR_4000.

Complicated but I liked it....  My first time seeing the scheme was while crossing the Mississippi and spotting trio of new SD45's.  Chinese red would have great, as well.  At least in those days, we had variety and choices.

Thanks Valmont for the memories.

YY

I would have voted for the scheme if the white band on the side were narrower where it tapered back. It's too broad on the side; would have gotten dirty quickly and looked trashy, much like KCS units did in their white paint period. Not a thin stripe, but maybe about 30% narrower on the side would have looked sharp. That said, I always like the scheme that finally emerged, although my real favorite would have been a variant of the Q's Chinese Red. Always fun to think abotu what could have been...

MC
Columbia, Missouri

No way.  Looks like someone designed it while they were on an acid trip.

The scheme stank, especially when applied to the passenger cars.

I first saw this scheme in color in the last few years while scanning Bill Gibson's slide collection. I don't think it would have been real exciting, but it would have been OK by me. Although I have to think the new corporate name "Burlington Northern" would have to have been eventually applied to the wide white band area. As-is it just looks too bare to my eyes...

Lance

A not-so-hot-so scheme but it looked much better in action than in roster shots. See attached.

Initially, the basic BN Cascade Green scheme was pretty nice. The problem with BN green is that after a few years it shifted to a darker, bluer green. It looked much better when it had more yellow in the pigment. It wasn't just aging. New paint jobs were shifted the same way.

Best regards,

Rob L.

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Looks like a fancy patch job.

Only ever saw one of these in person. If "meh" were a word 44 years ago, I might have used it.

Tom Y

rob_l Wrote: > ... See attached.

Excellent shot, Rob! If I'm reading the territory correctly this would be an afternoon shot westbound coming off the GN, just about to cross the lake??? (last time I was through there working was in 1991...)

Lance

santafe199 Wrote:
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> rob_l Wrote: > ... See attached.
>
> Excellent shot, Rob! If I'm reading the territory
> correctly this would be an afternoon
> shot westbound coming off the GN, just about to
> cross the lake??? (last time I was through there
> working was in 1991...)

Thanks, Lance. Yes, this is 197 running late and crossing over from the GN side to the NP side at Sandpoint in the late afternoon Aug 8, 1971.

Best regards,

Rob L.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/26/15 15:20 by rob_l.

This scheme, also known as the "Hockey Stick" scheme, appeared on BN locomotives almost until the end.  BN's E-units wore the scheme until they were retired in 1992.

I don't think the scheme looked good on hood units, but I do like it on the E-units and some passenger F-units.

Interestingly, when Athearn first began producing an SD45 model (early 1970s?), its CB & Q SD45 was painted in the Chinese Red scheme.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 04/26/15 18:39 by RuleG.

I'm not a fan of the 'hockey stick' white strip on the sides, but wished they'd have used the chevrons instead of the diagonal white stripes on the nose.

I agree with Rule G. The hockey stick looked good on E units and F units but not so good on anything else.

Jim

Red Q SD45s, they would have looked awesome. The SD45 and GP40 scheme looked better with the black frames IMHO. All the green on the U23Cs looks odd to me.


CPR_4000 Wrote:
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> I think BN got it right with the Cascade Green and
> black. This scheme never did much for me. It's a
> shame we never got to see Chinese red SD45's!

Al Seever
Phoenix, AZ



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/26/15 20:41 by alco636.

Yes Chinese Red SD-45's would've been the "bomb" , I liked the white nose stripes on this "hockey stick" scheme but not the "stick" - wide white carbody stripe, way too impractical for a system scheme; would've turned very grimey and grey quickly. Opinion, and thinking of the KCS and Frisco schemes, but large amounts of white rarely is a good choice, unless the power gets washed mega-frequently . 

If they had gone to large green loco numbers in the stripe back under the radiators they would have filled some of the emptiness back there. Something like they eventually did with the large white numbers on the green body.

I agree, keeping the white clean would have been a challenge.

Posted from Windows Phone OS 7

Not for the road units. E and F's okay.