UP painting several engines in Fallen Flag color schemes

My one word answer, SWEET!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I love it!! Can't wait to see the next few. I like the fact that they came up with something new for the old roads. I'd call them "tribute" not "heritage" schemes though.

I don't quite understand what is so bad about not being copies of the old schemes??? Sure I miss the SP/DRGW myself and will continue to model them, but a new stylized scheme on a real loco I can go shoot pics of would be Hella Cool!!

I've also heard now that this will be a continuing series with all predecessor roads to UP being done. Hmmmmm.

 

I really was expecting a 4000hp F-7 with 15 portholes.

 

Can I presume...that the locomotive numbers are tied into the respective merger/acquisition date of the various road?

 

Opinions seem to be splitting folk rather well.

I think they are excellent, I guess you could think of them trying to catch the spirit (heritage) of the companies rather than just copying an old paint scheme.

Have to say I love that the whole of the front (the lighter blue) of the Mopac unit is a gigantic screamin' eagle. Nice.

Can't wait to see what the others look like. They've managed to make a batch of terminally ugly loco's rather interesting.

 

Got Sick Days?

 

I agree, these can more accurately described as tributes than heritage schemes. Still, I like them - interesting schemes that don't fit standard patterns. Considering them for their own sake, I would say the WP scheme is less attractive than the old silver-with-orange, but the MP scheme is actually an improvement. Both use the idea of the front being a different color from the back - I wonder if they'll continue with that? Even though the schemes are unfaithful and many people (not including myself) dislike the look of the SD70ACe, I'm sure these will become some of the most often photographed locomotives.

 

I was thinking on the way home this morning from breakfast, about a comment made here or on railpictures.net about the WP Paint scheme. Someone said that they didn't understand all the gray at the rear of the unit. I believe it may represent the silver on the passenger F units on the CZ. I could be wrong, but that is the only explianation I can come up with.

 

I'd say this is probably correct. The silver never wore very well on the original WP units. Tis why the WP went to Perlman Green. Since I model the WP in the early 70s, I might be a bit bias towards more orange.
I can't really say I don't like the new paint schemes, just knowing what UP has been doing the past year kind of takes the fun out of it.

 

I like em, and why did WP have so much trouble with Silver when ATSF didn't.

 

Lots of good discussion on this topic, and agree or disagree with the comments it is obvious that there are lots of ideas and opinions on the subject...here's my opinions:

Regarding these units being UP's way of protecting their trademarks: There are many freight cars out on the system still carrying fallen flag reporting marks (MP, WP, DRGW, SP, MKT, etc...). Occasionally you may see one that has a "heritage" logo on it, such as a Rio Grande "Action Road" herald, WP "Feather River Route" logo or a Southern Pacific "Sunset" medallion...these freight cars already protect UP's use and copyright on the reporting marks and logos of their absorbed companies. Since they are already doing this, they do not need to paint locomotives for this purpose.

As for the "true retro copy" vs. fantasy scheme debate, I would have preferred direct adaptation of the original scheme as well. If I were in charge, the only UP identification on the locomotives would be the UP prefix on the cab numbers. The rest would be an exact copy of the most recent scheme used by the past railroad. Truth is, everyone would probably have done it a little bit different than the next person. While it wasn't done how I would have preferred, I hope they stay in this paint long enough to roam the system in the regular pool for everyone to see. I'm just glad to see some variety, and its a bonus to see those old logos put back to use.

Finally, for all of the hate and anger toward the UP (and much of that is justified from an operational standpoint), just remember that the UP does still maintain two steam engines, four vintage diesels, a fleet of streamliner era passenger cars and several specially painted daily use locos (United Way, SLC Olympics and now the Heritage units). From a "Railfan" perspective, that sure beats the "Black and White NS" or the "Powerbar Wedgie BNSF".

Now comes the next speculations...What colors will be used for the SP unit, Scarlet/Gray or Daylight colors? How about Rio Grande, Majority black, or more like the F's and PA's? Inquiring minds would like to know.......

 

Way back when, the Santa Fe used loads of silver paint, with paint jobs on passenger machines apparently even touched up between runs! Search through late 60's Santa Fe shots and it won't take you long to find ones with silver overspray visible on the noses.

Check out how many of the modern Super Fleet loco's look now as well...

 

Santa Fe F's having lots of stainless probably helped as well...

 

There's another possibility for the SP unit... Black Widow colors! Just to make it clear, I'm mostly a fan of 70s SP, but the gray-and-red isn't the reason. Either Black Widow or Daylight would look good on an SD70ACe.

What I actually expect: We'll get a modified gray-and-red scheme for the SP and black-with-yellow for DRGW. There's not much choice for CNW.

And for MKT, will we get green or red?

 

Triplex
I was thinking the same thing about the SP. There are still units in the 'Bloody Nose' scheme on the UP line.
could the scheme be the diesel 'Daylight' orange and red scheme.
Either seems possible and more probable than the red and gray.

 

I hope to see some Katy green on the rails instead of the old "bison" scheme..... my 2 cents....

Good idea for UP, but i am among those questioning the motives. as for the existing road stock w/ hearlds on it. i don't know if that covers the trademark issue for UP, but new engines definitely will (i believe)

 

Part of the reason for WP's troubles with their silver paint may be because the majority of it's silver units were in freight service. The CZ F units seemed to wear much better, perhaps due to better care or just frequent washing. This is of course just a guess on my part.
As for the SP and D&RGW paint schemes, I'd like to see a Daylight inspired SP design, with red on the front and orange or the hood and the Grande design being a black nose with Grande Gold hood.

 

I don't see how they could do herritage SP or D&RGW using their most recent colors.

C&NW is the worst though. Their paintscheme is exactly the same as UPs with different colors and even then, the yellow is fairly close. HEck as someone already pointed out, the Lightening stripe on UP was from C&NW.