Tom,
I worked at EMD at the time and there is no truth to such rumors. The
paint scheme was planned well in advance by the Q Mechanical Dept.,
probably with considerable imput from the merger committee in St. Paul.
It is very difficult and expensive to change paint schemes at the last
moment in the production process. It has happened, however and it
involved the Q or BN on at least two occasions.
When the merger actually occurred in March of 1970, EMD was in the
process of completing 6 GP38 locomotives for the Spokane Portland and
Seattle; part of the merger. As originally specified, the locomotives
were to receive a standard SP&S paint scheme. As the delivery and
merger approached, it was apparent that the two events would closely
coincide. A last minute change was made by the SP&S/BN management to
paint all six locomotives in the new BN green and black paint scheme.
After some scrabbling to obtain new paint stock, the job was
accomplished and the six locomotives were delivered in the new BN
paint scheme in time to pull the first westbound BN train from Chicago.
These were unit nos. 2072 - 2077, (where are they now?).
The second time that it happened was in 1980 when the Frisco was merged
into BN. The Frisco had 10 GP50 locomotives on order. In that instance,
the first unit, #3100, was indeed delivered in the Frisco paint scheme.
The remaining 9 units were delivered in the standard BN paint scheme.
The #3100 remained in Frisco colors for some time afterwards and a
number of photos exist showing it in the Frisco colors. I am sure BN
did not want to repaint a locomotive that already had fresh paint on it.
There was a third instance when BN changed a paint scheme at the last
moment and I was directly involved with this effort. It occurred during
Desert Storm in 1991 when the second order fro 50 SD60M locomotives
were being delivered. To show patriotic support for the troops, BN
decided to have EMD paint one new unit in red, white and blue. A
tremendous amount of effort was expended by both BN and EMD to
accomplish this task. It was decided that the last unit, #9299, would
be selected and it would be renumbered 1991. The paint scheme had to be
designed, paint material obtained and of course, some special effort to
get it through the paint shop at London, Ontario plant. I remember that
one difficult task involved use of the presidential seal on the
locomotive front of the locomotive. BN had to get permission from the
government to use and display the seal. Then, we had to get a decal
made up for it. The eagle decal on the side was another significant
challenge. It had to be designed, manufactured and applied in a
relatively short period of time and it was large, making it difficult
to handle. The cost to do all of this was significant and, because of
the circumstances was, as I recall, shared between BN and EMD. It was
a lot more than a standard paint job. From the original idea to the
finished product involved about 4 weeks, a number of meetings and a
tremendous amount manpower focused on one locomotive. I always thought
that the end result was outstanding. I was certainly proud of the
effort of all involved when the locomotive was dedicated at a public
ceremony at 14th street in Chicago.
Bill Barber
On Friday, June 25, 2004, at 04:52 AM, CBQ@yahoogroups.com wrote:
> Date: Thu, 24 Jun 2004 22:12:47 -0000
> From: "thommack" <mack@chmack.com>
> Subject: SD45's and Slumbercoaches
>
> In regard to the recent SD45 color question:
>
> Anyone ever hear of the rumor that one of the SD45's was actually
> painted in Chinese Red at La Grange, but repainted to green before
> leaving the plant? I actually heard that one from Dan Dover of Extra
> 2200 South magazine, but he couldn't confirm it.
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