Re: [CBQ] Blackbird Paint Scheme in HO?

["Jonathan Harris via groups.io" <jonathanharris=earthlink.net@groups.io>]

Mark -

 

A few thoughts on modeling your era, which is also some of what I model, though I stop earlier, circa 1957. 

 

(1) Before 1951-2, when the first GPs and SDs arrived, most branch-line traffic still would have been handled by steam (there are a few exceptions, see below #3), as would most mainline freight, other than long trains hauled by F units -- usually permanently coupled together in 3- or 4-engine lash-ups. Similar deal for passenger and mixed trains. Mostly steam or doodlebugs on the branch lines, mostly E units on the mainlines. After the GPs and SDs come in you start to see them in some secondary passenger and mixed train service. 

 

(2) The period around 1958 is a kind of watershed marking major changes in the appearance of the railroad. The blackbird scheme gives way to the redbird (except on yard switchers), black nose stripes on E units become red, mineral red waycars start being repainted in Chinese red or silver, depots and other company buildings that had been red with green trim are repainted all white, and in 1959 the first 2nd-generation diesels (SD-24) arrive. I can't give you exact dates for all of these and other changes (folks here can, no doubt), and of course they were implemented gradually, but they are good to keep in mind as you plan the where and when of your layout. In my own case, I just make sure not to buy or build anything after about 1955.

 

(3) I second what Ricky Keil said about the newer Walthers SD and GP diesels -- they have excellent, prototype-specific details.  Rapido is supposed to be coming out soon with a correct, Phase I GE 44-tonner. This will be the first time ever that the Phase I will be done in plastic, which is a big deal for CB&Q modelers, since all the Q's 44-tonners were that class. Rapido's offering will be CB&Q 9103, which was the railroad's first 44-tonner (blt. 8-40) and I believe the first such engine used on any US railroad. You may want to snag one of these, since they were some of the only diesels you'd be likely to see on a branch line before 1951 or '52, when the GP-7s and SD-7s arrived. For yard switchers you have more choices: EMD's SW-1, NW-2, SW-7, SW-9, and SW-1200 all have been offered in HO. Note that a few of these switchers hauled branch-line trains as well as doing yard work. The ALCO S-2 and Baldwin VO-1000 also have been produced in HO and are plausible prototypes, depending on the area you model. So far as I know, these were exclusively yard engines, never handeled a branch-line train.

 

(4) A couple general sources of info on the diesels of that era are Al Holck's Burlington Route Color Pictorial Vol. 1 (Four Ways West, 1994) and Bernard Corbin & Joe Hardy's The Burlington in Transition (1967, reissued Mile Post 206 Edition). Both have discussions and many photos as well as comprehensive lists of these "motors," as the Q labeled them.

 

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