As you may know, I'm a big fan of the CB&Q's Chinese red and gray paint scheme. I have often wondered if I would ever get to see this great paint scheme, considering that by the time I was born, most of it was Cascade green and black. So are the days of Chinese red and gray Geeps gone from the state of IL? No! A while back a fellow N-Trak modeler and friend wanted me to paint up some locomotives for a shortline he was modeling. The Bloomer line operates on former ICG track and all of their locomotives look a lot like the old Q. Take a look, http://www.daylightimages.com/trackside/bloomer1.html What lover of the Q could refuse to paint a fleet of these in N scale? The first locomotive he handed me was an Atlas Alco RS11. The Bloomer Line doesn't have a RS11, but it will be a while before my chop nose GP7 & 9 conversions will be done. Here is the Alco in N painted up.
The paint is the same as the CB&Q GP30 I did last month and most of the decals are from the same sheet. The diamond logo and the Bloomer lettering had to be done with the Testors decal paper and Adobe Illustrator. I found a font that looked similar and added a red box behind it. as you can not print white unless you have an Alps. So how did I match the Caboose red? With a Mac and some PC's you want to work in a four color process CMYK. Start with a pure red and add 5% of black. I made a sheet of Bloomer boxes, each box darker then the next. Once printed and sealed I matched up the one that best matched the paint, cut out and applied to the model. With the flat finish applied, tada! Check out the Bloomer line if you feel like you want to see a part of the Q. I hope to railfan the line some time this summer. Do a google on the line to find out more. I'll be back too as I will be adding these in GP10's soon to. I hope you enjoyed! Jim
At first, I thought that was a freelanced model RR line... VERY cool! Never heard of it before--any more history on it??
Being a CB&Q fan that I am, yes very cool. The line started around 1985 if my memory is correct. They are owned by Alliance Grain in Gibson City IL and run a stretch of trach that once belonged to ICG that ran from Herscher to Barnes IL. This branch is now not used in favor for the line between Chatsworth and Gibson City IL. They have connections with the TPW in Chatsworth and NS and CNIC in Gibson City. If one wanted to do a nice medium layout in N or HO that had good variety and connections with both shortline and class 1, this would be a great prototype. The Bloomer line operates about 4 former IC Geep 10's and I believe 1 former N&W GP9. It is nice to see that high hood Geep in that paint scheme! They had at one time an SW switcher but that was sold years ago. You can read more form a nice photo essay here http://www.daylightimages.com/trackside/bloomer1.html I plan to go down to this area sometime and do some railfaning of the line as it would kill two birds with one stone, photographing both this and the TPW line. My firts night I slept in IL, moving from NH was Gibson City. It is a great town and even has a local RR ghost! I will probably offer more of these in N scale at a later date, but in GP10's. Jim
VERY cool! And nice paint job on the model . I too miss the red and gray scheme. It was around when I was growing up. My first memories of railroads were those units (along with the last of the passenger trains) heading through the Louisville, Co area en route to Cheyenne... Thanks for sharing the info!! John
