(erielack) Paint schemes (was: Turning the calendar....)

["Paul R. Tupaczewski" <paultup_@_comcast.net>]

> I found it interesting to see how close the EL yellow/black scheme patterned the Erie paint design.  The shops didn't have to
change
> their stencils very much.

Actually, the "bibs" on the F-units and FAs were quite a bit different. The Erie "bib" had a much more gradual and elegant curve,
while the EL B/Y "bib" has a smaller radius curve and more tangent lines. This made it look a bit more "modern," I suppose?



> Another interesting note is that EL did paint a lot of the GP's but only a few RS's got the new design mostly
> Lackawanna units.

To be exact here, former Erie freight GP7s with the B/Y scheme:

1200-1214, 1216-1221, 1223-1229, 1233, 1238, 1240, 1242, 1245, 1246   (34 out of 47 units total)

(As a side note, 1241 had maroon lettering and black roof in 1965, one of the first "White-era" GMY repaints and the ONLY GP7 with
maroon Roman lettering. A few others had GMY with 7" Roman yellow lettering within the maroon stripe, but that was short-lived.)



Former DL&W freight GP7s with the B/Y scheme:

1271, 1275, 1278-1284 (9 of 15 units total)




Former Erie/DL&W passenger GP7s in B/Y:

1403, 1405-1409

(Note: I think this isn't surprising at all. IMHO, the former Erie management kept the Erie-scheme units running as long as
possible, and repainted the DL&W units with the "Erie-like image" since these units were such in the public eye, and therefore would
carry the Erie "perception" forward a little longer. Just my $0.02 :)



As for the GP9s, 1260 was the only GP9 NOT to get B/Y paint.


As for the RS2s/RS3s, the ones that got B/Y paint:

900, 901, 908 (3 out of 39 passenger RS units)
1006-1008, 1010-1019, 1021-1024, 1027-1029, 1032-1033, 1036-1045, 1048-1051, 1054-1056  (38 of 52 freight RS units)

Steve Timko: Was Erie 1030 wrecked/scrapped? The only photo I have of it is in full Erie paint in May 1962....

Again, my theory of the passenger GP7s applies here to the passenger RS units. 




>  EL was quickly running out of money and new paint was a luxury.

You'd never guess it by the numbers above! Remember, all those B/Y units were repainted in the first FOUR years, and most were
rapidly repainted into EL GMY by the mid-to-late-1960s.

Now that I'm older, the concept of "time" is a bit more clear to me. I can't believe that Conrail has "officially" been gone for 14
years now (!!!) - it seemed like only yesterday. And if you think about the EL B/Y scheme, I can see why so many people think that
"not a lot of units were repainted." That's because the scheme was so short-lived (on some units, no more than a year), people just
didn't know it existed.

Also of note: The EL was still carrying a freight AND passenger scheme so late in the life of the through passenger train. How many
other roads were still doing this at this late stage of the game?

	- Paul




	The Erie Lackawanna Mailing List
	http://EL-List.railfan.net/
	To Unsubscribe: http://Lists.Railfan.net/erielackunsub.html

------------------------------