Diesel locomotive paint schemes

Q: I’m contemplating adding another, different paint scheme to some of the diesels on my freelanced railroad. I know a lot of roads had different schemes for passenger and freight locomotives, but what about major color changes? And I’m not counting mergers, either. I can think of Western Maryland, but then I draw a blank. What others am I missing? — Morpar, via the MR Forums

A: The short answer? Quite a few. This is by no means a complete list, but here’s what I — along with members of the Trains.com team — came up with: Amtrak; Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe; BNSF Ry.; Boston & Maine; Burlington Northern; Canadian National; Canadian Pacific; Chicago, Burlington & Quincy; CSX; Grand Trunk Western; Great Northern; Lehigh Valley; Maine Central; New York, New Haven & Hartford; Northern Pacific; Pennsylvania RR; Reading Co.; Rock Island; Soo Line; Southern Pacific; Western Pacific; and Wisconsin & Southern.

I didn’t count railroads that kept the same color palette but changed heralds, modified graphic placement, added stripes, and things of that nature. Examples include Detroit, Toledo & Ironton; Montana Rail Link; Norfolk Southern; and Union Pacific.

Let’s take a closer look at one of the lines on the list that changed its diesel locomotive paint scheme, Great Northern. The railroad debuted its Omaha Orange and Pullman Green with gold stripes paint scheme in 1941. This became known as the Empire Builder scheme, named for the railroad’s flagship passenger train.

In 1962, GN adopted the “Simplified Scheme” for use on its road and yard diesels. The omission of gold stripes and wider bands of orange and green sped up the painting process. The Empire Builder scheme was retained for passenger equipment.

Omaha Orange and Pullman Green served the GN well for more than 25 years. In April 1967, the railroad adopted Big Sky Blue as its new paint scheme. Along with diesel locomotives, the new scheme was applied to passenger equipment, freight cars, cabooses, company vehicles, signs, and more. The scheme was used until the merger that created Burlington Northern in March 1970. A mix of all three schemes could be found on diesels up to and after the merger.

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