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Re: Red-winged Blackbirds

To: BRHSlist@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: Red-winged Blackbirds
From: jonathanharris@e...
Date: Tue, 5 Feb 2002 08:07:34 -0900
If Russ, Loren and Ed all say the term "blackbird" was not used on the
railroad, that's good enough for me. I suppose there's a small chance it
was a geographically-restricted local term, but I'm at least as prepared to
believe we railfans coined it. That still leaves the question of who and
when. A simple search of our list archives turned up the earliest reference
as January 1, 1999 (Message #475), the crucial sentence being as follows:

".... Some time back, I saw a Stewart Q F-3 in a hobby shop, and was
immediately turned off, because the "grey" appeared dark enough for the
blackbird scheme...."
Marshall (jje corporation <zephyr03@xxxxxx.xxxx>)

Marshall's phrasing here suggests that the term was already commonly
understood by then. John Mitchell's The Q in the Coal Fields (Burlington
Bulletin No. 35: April, 1999) also uses the term. Could it really be this
recent -- just a few years old? Maybe these folks could tell us where they
first heard it. Or perhaps the person who actually invented it is still on
the list (step up and take a bow!).

The term "redbird" I suspect is of very recent origin, no doubt just an
extension, by analogy, of "blackbird."

But my original posting really was more concerned with the origin of the
black/gray/red/yellow color scheme itself, which in its complexity does
closely match the markings of the American red-winged blackird. I still
think it's plausible that whoever conceived it (and I suppose we will never
know) was inspired by the bird's striking colors, just as Raymond Loewy was
inspired by the cool forest greens of the Pacific Northwest when he
envisaged the color scheme for the North Coast Limited.

Jonathan




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