The UP Heritage paint scheme locomotives are some of my favorite looking designs. I often wonder what other lines may have looked like had they done a major redesign or a heritage style paint scheme. Anyway, I threw together one for BNSF in photoshop, still working on it, but this is what I have so far... Once I get a decent design that I like I may have to make one for my layout.
That looks good but what road name does it represent? The idea of heritage series means that it represents the paint scheme in some way of the road name or names that merged with that rail road.
It's cool, but it would definitely be more of a fantasy scheme than a Heritage. How about an SD70aCe in the NP freight scheme, or the GN Big Sky scheme?
I started on some AMTRAK "Heritage" units. I haven't gotten to the Warbonnets they would need for the Chief but here's the Zephyr
That's pretty cool - it looks like what could be if BNSF and NS merged, with all that black in the front. have you tried flipping the orange and black, and making the orange the predominant color? That may give it more of a BNSF feel, and would make the front of the loco brighter & more visible at grade crossings also. Those F59's sure look cool - nice work. And the lines of that locomotive would make a warbonnet look killer. I really like the Rio Grande scheme.
yeah that's why I put heritage in quotes, I wasn't really going for a real heritage scheme, just the style of the UP heritage stuff. I had the same idea about the orange but got too tired to swap the colors lastnight. Haha.
I really think BNSF should at least do a heritage scheme for the BN half and the Santa Fe. Since they painted some GP's in blue and white, I think a big sky blue unit would look great, and they have several uptions for an ATSF version. Got the zebra stripes, the "as delivered" scheme, the bluebonnet, and the super fleet warbonnet scheme. BNSF's "points" would go up in my book. lol.
I have hopes that Mr. Buffet (whom Trains tells us is a railfan AND a modeler) might suggest they bring back the warbonnet....still for my money the best bar none!
I once had a custom Kato SD90MAC done up in CB&Q "Blackbird" except that the sides said, "Way of the West" and "Zephyrs Everywhere." I ended up selling it. I would like an SD70MAC in a real CB&Q Blackbird and/or Chinese Red scheme. I've got the unpainted Kato units . . . .
I'm not sure we'll see this happen, BNSF seem intent on erasing all reference to their predecessors, each new paint scheme has less elements from their predecessors than the last. We started out with GN Empire Builder style orange and green, ATSF style striping on heritage II units, and ATSF style circle/cross herald and Cooper Black lettering, all that is left on the current scheme is the orange. Even the name itself is now just 'BNSF' rather than 'Burlington Northern & Santa Fe'. The only reason there are still warbonnets and other ATSF and BN painted units running around is that BNSF is not as quick at repainting as ATSF was, look how quickly ATSF's Kodachromes disappeared after the merger was denied. BNSF is also different from UP in that it was made up of two roads that both lost their identity in the merger, while UP, although it fully integrates it's merger partners, has been around itself since the 1860's so may be a bit more heritage minded.
I know we all love railroad history, but from a branding standpoint I think in a way it's cool how BNSF forged its own corporate identity with the "Swoosh" (plus, let's face it, the old BNSF logo looked like that of a Class I). Think about it -- that's kind of how Burlington Northern did it after merging three railroads, establishing its own corporate identity with its own shade of green and the big "BN" logo. The "BNSF" acronym will speak for itself in terms of its own heritage -- as long as they don't pull something stupid and re-appropriate the "BNSF" acronym to stand for something else (remember how KFC pulled that "Kitchen Fresh Chicken" nonsense a few years back? That failed miserably).
BNSF = Big New Santa Fe Repaint everything in warbonnet They might have something there.:tb-biggrin: Then again, best they leave it, nobody could do Santa Fe like the Santa Fe. Still some heritage units might be nice. Five SD70Ace's, #1955 in zebra stripes, #1965 in Blue w/yellow pinstripes, #1975 in yellow/blue warbonnet, #1985 in Kodachrome and #1995 in Super Fleet, to cover all the Santa Fe road freight schemes.
