Model Railroading > FEC Atlas Silver Blue Q

Just picked one of these up at the train show (road # 413), Q 1. Has or were there issues with this shade of Blue , Q 2. pic 2.Do I have 3 time periods here ?,, going by 1 roof color, FEC color and sill color, TIA, Ed

Ed Stewart
Jacksonville, FL

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calsubd Wrote:
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> Just picked one of these up at the train show
> (road # 413), Q 1. Has or were there issues with
> this shade of Blue , Q 2. pic 2.Do I have 3 time
> periods here ?,, going by 1 roof color, FEC color
> and sill color, TIA, Ed

Ed,

FEC blue has been all over the map. You really have to look at units at different point in time to see this.

J.

Thank you J., " I guess they just haven't been to the paint shop yet", Ed

Ed Stewart
Jacksonville, FL

Ed,

I am going from memory here, but I believe the medium blue scheme with blue cab roof and white logo was mid '70's. As a teenager, I remember our family camping in the Daytona Beach area in a campground next to the FEC tracks. The GP40's pulling most of the trains were that scheme.

The lighter, brighter blue predated the medium blue scheme.

Not too sure about the introduction of the white roof scheme. Best guess is 1990ish?

Jay

From what I remember the FEC revised their scheme several times from the 70s onward. I believe the yellow hurricane with yellow sill stripes is from the early 70s, the medium blue with white hurricane and red & white sill is from the late-80s and the dark blue from the 90s. There was also a scheme in the late 70s-early 80s that had a yellow hurricane with the red & white sill stripes.

ck3573,

Did the last scheme you mention also have the nose safety stripes like the medium blue/white logo scheme? If so, that may have been the one I remember from our camping trip in the '70s.

Jay



ck3573 Wrote:
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> From what I remember the FEC revised their scheme
> several times from the 70s onward. I believe the
> yellow hurricane with yellow sill stripes is from
> the early 70s, the medium blue with white
> hurricane and red & white sill is from the
> late-80s and the dark blue from the 90s. There
> was also a scheme in the late 70s-early 80s that
> had a yellow hurricane with the red & white sill
> stripes.

Ed,

I'm no expert on the FEC but this is what little I do know about the paint schemes on the GP38-2 & GP40's.

#413 the lighter blue unit was the FEC standard blue from around 1962 to around 1979/1980. Unit 413 was delivered in Nov-1972 and by late 1981 was repainted into the darker blue with white hurricane logo.

Sometime in the mid 80's they changed to a thinner Hurricane logo and number I think but am not sure that is show on your unit #417.

#510 to me looks like it has more of the original thicker hurricane logo and numbers, but with the white cab roof which seemed to appear around 1989/1990 on the fleet. Looking at pictures on the internet this seems to be correct logo for that unit with the white roof in the late 80's. Unit #510 was delivered in 1978 with the yellow logo but with the candy stripping (Red & White) on the sills, pilots, hood end and nose.

FEC also had the dark blue scheme with the road name spelled out which seemed to appear around 2005, and more recently their GP fleet has received the light blue & pink breast cancer scheme last year and original red & yellow scheme, if I recall correctly in 2010/2011.

Hope this helps, have fun remember it's your layout so anything can go. How else could you explain the Milwaukee Road SD70Ace's on my model railroad.

Kris

I'll second the comments on the FEC paint eras. The unit you bought is a GP40-2 and I have several of the FEC ones like yours. I like the fact that Atlas did these with the Gyra lights in the nose and as mentioned they are correct for the 1970s as delivered units until the early 80s. The Atlas blue for this locomitive is exactly right as the later schemes of the FEC went to a darker blue. I hope you enjoy your new unit.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/12/14 21:27 by RailThunder.

Thank you All, I will keep them as is, very informative

Ed Stewart
Jacksonville, FL

garr Wrote:
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> ck3573,
>
> Did the last scheme you mention also have the nose
> safety stripes like the medium blue/white logo
> scheme? If so, that may have been the one I
> remember from our camping trip in the '70s.
>
> Jay
>
>
>
> ck3573 Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > From what I remember the FEC revised their
> scheme
> > several times from the 70s onward. I believe
> the
> > yellow hurricane with yellow sill stripes is
> from
> > the early 70s, the medium blue with white
> > hurricane and red & white sill is from the
> > late-80s and the dark blue from the 90s. There
> > was also a scheme in the late 70s-early 80s
> that
> > had a yellow hurricane with the red & white
> sill
> > stripes.

Yes, the last scheme I mentioned did have red/white nose stripes. This is the scheme dcmkris noted being the as-delivered scheme for #510.