You are looking for a couple books (the two color volumes by Al Holck
have excellent illustrations), and there are several relevant Burlington
Bulletins. I'm no authority and don't have time to track all this stuff
down and lay it out in a table or timeline. Here is a very broad overview,
and know that there are significant exceptions to what follows.
The
first diesels (yard switchers of diverse provenance) were painted solid
black. I believe they had Roman lettering (unsure whether gold or white).
The blackbird scheme for switchers — with the EW/WOTZ script — was
introduced on the eve of WW2. I don't know whether the exact date is
known, and there was some overlap with black. When road switchers (GP7,
SD7) came in during the early 1950s they followed the blackbird scheme.
The redbird scheme for road switchers was adopted in the late 1950s, and
all subsequent new road switchers (post-GP9/SD9) were painted
red/grey/white; however, some of the older units remained in blackbird
until the end. In the very late 1960s, shortly before the merger, a number
of units (GE engines, in particular) were painted in an experimental
green/white scheme.
All
the Burlington's F units were painted in the so-called Greyback scheme,
with the exception of a trio initially used to power the California
Zephyr, which were painted silver until after they were demoted to freight
service.
From
the Pioneer Zephyr until the end, E unit passenger diesels were silver —
either natural, bare metal or painted. The change from black to red trim
happens around the same time as the Redbird scheme is
introduced.
Hope
this helps,
Jonathan
Harris
--- In cbq@yahoogroups.com,
<southburlingtoncentral@...> wrote:
All I can tell you that the Redbird scheme replaced the Blackbird on
road units, and Red nose stripes replaced black on passenger units in
1958, if I'm not mistaken.
--- In cbq@yahoogroups.com, <wscott@...>
wrote:
I'd like to see the
entire diesel era up until the end of the Q - is that possible, or am I
looking for a book?
Bill Scott
There
are a lot of different diesel schemes with both freight and
passenger schemes. Road units, all switcher schemes, passenger
diesel changes? Early generation or until the end of the
railroad? Could you be more specific as to what you're looking
for?
Rich G.
-----Original
Message-----From: bobbinbill229
<wscott@...>To: CBQ <CBQ@yahoogroups.com>Sent: Sat, Sep 21,
2013 5:28 pmSubject: [CBQ]
Diesel color schemes
Does anyone have a
timeline of the color schemes that were used on the various diesel
models on the CBQ?