Nostalgia & History > Mojave Monday

Mojave, California, Fall 1971.

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Great historical shot!  A time when SPRR was trying out different paint colors on various depots.  The Saugus depot received a different color in the late 70s as well.

I'm glad that color blue was not adopted by the SP.   SP and blue just don't belong together.   It kind of reminds me of how well the experimental blue paint looked on a SP&S unit (terrible).  

The Mojave depot received the blue-green color in 1966 after the Tehachapi depot was repainted similarly (the Tehachapi depot was repainted in June 1966, a date that is easy for me to remember as I was on a Santa Fe freight train at the time and saw a neighbor who was on the SP Bakersfield Buildings & Bridges gang painting the building).

Zephyr wqrote:

> The Saugus depot received a different color in the late 70s as well.

Photos on the Santa Clarita Valley History website indicate that the Saugus depot was in the blue-green color as early as 1970.


Milwaukee Wrote:

> I'm glad that color blue was not adopted by the SP.  

But it apparently WAS adopted by the SP based on the number of depots that received the color.  Some of these depots were mentioned in this old thread:
https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?11,2174480,2174514
 



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 03/29/21 15:20 by johnsweetser.

That paint job resulted from a dinner on an SP business car parked in Mojave one evening
when some SP brass asked community leaders what color they wanted it painted. I believe
they were doing a favor to Mojave in exchange for shutting down, something which escapes
my aging mind.
The depot was eventually demolished and the community got a lot of flak for not trying to "save"
it. But the cost involved, the location, and, as was demonstrated in Tehachapi, the danger of
fire made it infeasible. As I recall none of the folks who complained were willing to donate
any money to the cause. I agree that the original color was best.
BTW, that was originally a two-story depot with a Harvey House.

Bill Deaver
Tehachapi, CA

Believe it or not, that would be a color combination that would have been used by some RRs in the latter part of the 19th century. And I believe the Nickle Plate used a scheme that was similar.

Victor A. Baird
http://www.erstwhilepublications.com



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 03/30/21 22:39 by wabash2800.

Check out that green Plymouth FURY III 4-door sedan--probably has the 318-V8.  Great cars.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/29/21 23:24 by coach.