What a Colorful Railroading World!

After all the big mergers of the past few years and railroads consolidating fleets, selling power, leasing power, renumbering and slapping hasty patch jobs over the "vanquished" power of beloved railroads, I began to wonder if railroads really gave a damn what their locomotives looked like. Why not paint em all black--all of em, all over the country!--and give em all five digit numbers and be done with it. But all is not lost. Even a casual look around the railroads of north Texas reveals some sharp paint schemes, sometimes even on unusual power.


Union Pacific has nearly a dozen specially-painted locomotives running around, honoring everything from the 2002 Olympic Games to their half-dozen predecessor railroads (since 1982) to this recreation of the Raymond Lowey-designed pain scheme for the Presidential Air Force One jet, lettered and numbered to honor the 41st POTUS, King George Herbert Walker Bush. Here's the 4141 southbound leaving Fort Worth south of Tower 55. I would love to read the grafitti from crews that is no doubt covering the inside of the cab. . .


All the railfans are wetting their pants--rightfully so--over this sharp recreation of the Kansas City Southern "Southern Belle" paint scheme, here aplied to an SD70ACE at BNSF's Allliance yard. That the idea came from president Mike Haverty--who brought back the Santa Fe warbonnet during his tenure there--is no surprise. Beats the hell out of bland grey paint, but how about moving that octagon herald to the nose, Mr. H??

KCS's main competition in Mexico is Ferromex, and their white, green and red paint scheme--the colors of Mexico's flag--look pretty sharp on this new GE AC4400. . . .

Okay, so those two Mexican schemes are pretty sharp. . . an improvement over the two-tone-blue-and-orange from FNM, as the nationalized Mexican rail system called itself before privitization. Whew. Break out the dingle-balls! But, having it applied to a notch-nosed SDP40, the 1314, also at Alliance yard, cuts em a little slack. Sharp locomotive, interesting paint. . .

One of Texas' newest shortline operators is Austin Western, which stepped in to operate the former SP Marble Falls-Austin-Elgin branchlines with this red and grey scheme. The AW--reviving, perhaps, the old nickname "The Root Beer Railroad"--has a fleet of SD50s, ex-CNW GP50s and a couple of ex-CN Rail GP40W's. Here three SD50s switch at McNeil last week, as construction for the new Capitol Metro commuter line continues. . .

The "cinder block" Southern Pacific EMD used to the the whippin' boy for railfans who waved a finger of indignation towards the railroad for allowing their locomotives to look so shabby. Now that finger is pointing at the BNSF, whose once spiffy fleet of Silver and Red "Warbonnet" Santa Fe units is looking shittier by the day. Here's one of the "trashbonnets," BNSF 900, at Alliance yard. . .and this one is far from being the worst-looking. At least the swapped-out air conditioning unit is orange. Show your pride, BNSF!

What Cowboy fan could resist?

Obligatory Anti-Dallas Cowboys Content. . .

The Dallas Cowboys are guilty of many things. . .and "class", in my way of thinking, is rarely one of them. Okay, so I shouldn't be hatin' on the Boyz. . .it's not a popular stand to take in these parts. But, can you blame me when they subvert one of the most cherished hobbies in the universe--Model Railroading--by daring to offer me, via mail, this very valuable and collectable Dallas Cowboys (tm) HO scale train? I'm sure it's worth every penny they're charging, and probably also of such high quality it will provide days of operating satisfaction. What do you wanna bet there's lead in the paint?