(erielack) ELs Adoption of Grey Maroon and Yellow colors

[Dlw1el2_@_aol.com]

The EL's Adoption of the Gray Maroon and Yellow colors has been kicked  
around here several times.   Each time it reminded me of  the  story that Walt 
Travis told several of  us up at the ARHS meeting in  Scranton several years ago 
when he was the guest Speaker.   I called  him on this several weeks ago to 
reiterate the story so I  wouldn't be getting any part of it incorrect. He 
recalled it to me pretty much  the exact same way I remembered from the first time I 
heard  it.   
 
I thought it would be nice to share with all of you.
 
Please keep in mind I'm not stating all this to trying and change  anything 
anyone else has put in print, I'm simply trying to relay Walt  Travis's story, 
as he tells it, but I find no reason for it to be untrue.
 
Walt went to the D&H in  early 1962.  Prior to his  departure from the EL he 
was Superintendent of Diesel Maintenance. The same  title he held on the 
Lackawanna before the merger.  He happened to be  in the office's at Cleveland the 
same day a bunch of Mechanical Engineering Dept  guys were there to present  3 
or 4 drawings for adoption as the new colors  for the Railroad.  He states 
all the drawings were using the Gray, Maroon  and Yellow colors, but they all 
had slight differences in them. One of them was  much more professional looking 
and he recognized it at once as the  exact Lackawanna scheme. He thought it 
might have even come from EMD cause  it looked so good.   While hanging around 
the guys lay ed out the  drawings.   It was quite evident that everyone sort of 
leaned  towards the one that Walt was sure was the old Lackawanna scheme.  
The  group of men were waiting to go in and see Gary White,  NO, NOT  William 
White.  Per Walter, Gary was Williams younger brother, and was the  VP of 
operations on the EL at that time.   William was still up on the  D&H at that time.  
 Gary White was an extremely busy  man,  and was known to become very 
boisterous and animated when  things went wrong or when he didn't like something. An 
occasional ash tray or  garbage can might be known to have wound up on the 
other side of the room,  possible hitting two walls on the way over, SOOOOOOOO 
when the group was ready  to go in, Walt suggested that they had there preferred 
choice, why not  just take that one in and try and get Gary Whites blessing 
on that  one.  He said they followed his suggestion, and were out of there in 
10 min  with a done deal.
 
 
Now when I started to put this all down in an email, I started to realize  
that this all didn't come together correctly as far as dates were  concerned.  I 
reconfirmed with Paul T that the first actual freight units  to arrive on the 
property or to show up in ANY PHOTOS with  the GMY paint scheme  were the new 
C425, GP35, and U25Bs  all in  1964.   With this discrepancy in mind I 
recalled Walter  Travis last week and cleared up a few things.  The drawings were  
of F or E units, and thus we both then came to the conclusion that it was  for 
the official adoption of the scheme to be universally applied to all the  
passenger units. NOT the adoption of the scheme to be put on freight units. This  
did indeed take place two plus years later in 1964 and as Larry De Young's  
trains article suggests,  was more than likely spearheaded by William  White, 
who was then on the EL.
 
 
Why had the Mechanical Engineers  worked up those drawings, and who  had 
asked for it? I do not know, probable to adopt a universal  painting, but from all 
this, it seems that one of the few Lackawanna  Men in any authority just 
happened to be in the right spot at the right time.  Unbeknownst to those he was 
making suggestions to he helped alter history  or shall I say sugar coated it 
with Lackawanna taste and  inspiration. LOL  :)   This all probable went a long 
 way in tastefully preserving the GM &Y colors, which in turn led to  them 
officially being adopted  later in 1964 on all units, in an  equally tasteful 
manor.
 

Bob Bahrs
 

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