In a message dated 9/18/01 2:51:59 PM Central Daylight Time,
kozys@t... writes:
> List,
>
> Please excuse a somewhat off topic question.
> I have never heard or read a reason why, how, by whom the color scheme for
> the BN merger was picked.
>
> Thanks in advance.
>
>
> Paul Kossart - Peru, Illinois, USA
> Modeling the CB&Q & it's fictional Illiniwek River Branch in HO in the
> 1960's.
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> "Serving Agriculture and Industry in the Illiniwek River Valley since
> 1904."
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>
> Paul,
In Hol Wagner's 1971 BN Annual on page 3, he gives a great description of how
the name, the emblem and the color were chosen. Here is a copy of it:
Thanks,
John Lee
With creation of the nation's longest railroad on March 2, 1970, a new name,
a new emblem and a vibrant new color came to the American railroad scene.
In searching for a name for the company, management felt that, rather than
selecting a totally new name, foreign to both the railroad industry and to
the road's customers, the company's interests would be better served by use
of a name that restained the image of the merging lines. With this in mind,
Lippincott & Margulies, the noted New York industrial design firm, was
engaged to devise a short, usable name that would retain the good will of the
component railroads. L&M was also assigned the task of designing an
appropriate emblem to go with the name. Prior to selection of the new name,
the cumbersome title "Great Northern Pacific & Burlington Lines" was used in
all merger proceedings; while certainly all-inclusive, this was obviously not
a usable name. (It wouldn't even fit on the side of a locomovtive or car!)
Lippincott & Margulies and the constituent railroads made public the new name
in March 1968. To realize the objective, the design firm had combined the
word "Burlington" from Chicago, Bulington & Quincy with the "Northern" from
Great Northern and Northern Pacific. This combination was quite appropriate,
since the CB&Q was commonly known as "the Burlington" and the GN and NP were
collectively "The Northerns."
The striking new emblem, registered trademark fo the company, was also
unveiled in March 1968. It features the letter "N" attractively superimposed
on the letter "B."
Green was chosen as the BN's official color because of its pleasing and
refreshing appearance and because the color is symbolic of forestry products,
one of the company's most important freight commodities. The specific hue
used is called "Cascade Green" after the Cascade Mountains of Washington and
Oregon.
A proposed locomotive paint scheme, using the new name, emblem and color, was
developed early in 1968 by the Burlington and was experimentally applied to Q
GP40 629 in August of that year. Fifteen new SD45's and nine U23C's
delivered to the Burlington early in 1969 also sported the experimental paint
scheme but without the BN logo or the word "Northern."
The paint scheme ultimately adopted by the BN is a modification of the
experimental Burlington design; rather than using the narrow "V' stripes of
the Q design, four bold 45-degree stripes highlight the front of each unit,
the wide white side stripe is used only on passenger locomotives and large
26" numerals replace the small numbers of the xperimental scheme. The
switch engine paint schem was twice been modified somewhat to better fit the
smaller engine hoods of these locomotives, and two speical paint schemes have
been developed for former Burlington passenger E-units which have stainless
steel sides. Stainless steel does not take paint well, and consequently both
of these schemes retain the stainless steel sides. The first version,
applied to unites 9947, 9970, 9975, 9983 and 9984, called for all of the unit
but the sides to be painted silver (aluminum) with black lettering and
alternating black and white nose stripes. This cheme, as it turned out,
presented an overly somber appearance, so E8 9950 was painted similarly but
with alternating green and white nose stripes in an attempt to brighten up
the design. Still not satisfied, a paint schem was finally settled on which
retains the stainless steel sides but features a green nose with white
visibility stripes, green lettering (since changed to black) on the stainless
steel and a black roof and underbody.
>
>
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