Do you ever think...

[jettrainfan]

Today i was out at triskett rapid station watching trains. Its probably the closest rea i can think of that you can see the logos easily(model, etc) i looked at this ethanol passing and saw it was in ns paint. I read the logo(i love to do this ) and saw NW SD40-2. I was very surprised! i have seen only NS logos. I started to think of my facts. "lets see.... north folk western merged with southern. ok, check. and... Norfolk western was during when the SD40-2 was the top loco(up their)." I thought of why they dont have any of those like they did to Conrail, they put a black logo, or left it totally alone. I also thought the same for southern. Except i heard of 1 still in that paint scheme... doing real work. I thought of other railroads that did this. BNSF= Santa fe and burlington northern, both have locos living in their old paint but with BNSF on the side. I was thinking long and hard about this. I would ask Norfolk southern... but, they have no e-mail for this. In ways i should be happy for Conrail to still be around, and i am. I think the reason is because of age. conrail was done in the 1990s... The merger of Norfolk western and southern was 1960s...? please correct me if wrong. Well, this is what happens when i see these and im open minded! Thanks.

[RAM]

when locomotives go into the shop for a major overhaul it will get repainted.  I was in the U.P. shops in N Little Rock, Arkansas ten years or so.  They said it didn't matter what color a unit was when it went into the shops, but it would be yellow when it came out.

[termite]

I live an hour or so east of Roanoke, Va. the home of the N&W. It's not uncommon to see N&W hoppers pass through in the middle of a NS train. As RAM stated, not everything gets painted in the new colors right away. The N&W and Southern merged in the 1982

[jward]

how quickly a railroad will repaint acquired locomotives varies, but it is often a sign of how well maintained the locomotives are. in the case of norfolk southern, the conrail fleet was in better shape than the ns units. i can vouch for this firsthand, having worked with the railroad during the time of the merger. as was said, railroads will repaint units when they overhaul them. if the units of the road taken over were in good shape, they won't be shopped and repainted quickly. or, as in the case of southern pacific being taken over by union pacific, the locomotive fleet was in such poor shape that they were being replaced by new units, they won't spend money on an overhaul and new paint. the difference is, units up for replacement won't be around too long, units in good shape can last many years.

a bit of trivia for you: erie and lackawanna merged in 1960. when conrail took over erie lackawanna in 1976, one alco switcher was still in erie paint, having outlasted erie's successor road.....

[jettrainfan]

Thanks, that is really helpful for me. I appericate the help. I do remember reading something about Norfolk southern getting sued or something a couple times for bad actions, including not have the first unit in a train with a toilet.

  Quiz: I'm guessing that from your info, it was in good shape and did not need major repairs.

well, hopefully i did not mess up as bad as the merger date! i thought that was a tad bit too early.

[jward]

i am guessing you are referring to that erie alco?

not only was it in good shape (for a locomotive on a bankrupt railroad) but reportedly there were people who were "hiding" it from the top officials. remember, this was in the days before computers took over, and records were kept on paper. now you couldn't do this. the computer knows where everything is and how long it's been since it was last shopped.

by keeping this locomotive on a branch line ( i remember seeing it in oil city, pa) and in a location where the big shots rarley went, they were able to keep it under the radar.

similar situations sometimes occur when a railroad sells off a locomotive to an industrial line. those locomotives can exist for many years in their former owner's paint. reportedly there is still a lehigh valley sw1 kicking around, it's spent longer working for the secondhand owner than it spent on the valley.

[BestSnowman]

I saw a UP ethanol train last night that was led by two GPs (not sure on exact model) the first was all Southern Pacific paint except a yellow patch on the number board and a red number.

I understand why railroads would repaint locomotives from mergers like that (managing the brand name and all) but it adds a lot of character to see a locomotive in a fallen flag's paint rumbling down the track.

[jettrainfan]

Yes it does! adds a little color too!