Tag Archives: nh

Penn Central, Penn Central, Railroad Paint Schemes

Penn Central Locomotive Paint Schemes

Penn Central locomotive paint schemes will be discussed in this blog.  Penn Central had a standard paint scheme they applied to their locomotives. This general version was the road name (applied to the hood of the unit), nose logos, and side logos applied to the hood. However, they had many versions due to different shops using different methods, available paint/supplies at the time, and in order for the image of “red and green team” to be erased as much as possible.

This was a tactic brought on by ex-SOU RR President Bill Moore, who became President of the PC in the early 70s. After the bankruptcy in 1970, he and other officials did their best to reform their broken image to the public, and among fellow employees. He ordered all predecessor logos and road names of the NH, NYC, & PRR to be painted over in any means possible, especially on locomotives. This is why sometimes one would see a locomotive still in ex-NH orange or red paint, but with PC logos, etc. applied. The same for ex-Tuscan red PRR paint on E7s, etc.

Penn Central RR logo photo- 1-West Productions™

PC also had partial schemes, where the locomotive may be painted in new paint, but only nose logos and cab numbers applied. Below is a list put together on variations of PC locomotive paint schemes, as seen in photos, books, etc.:

-FULL: road name, nose logos, cab numbers, large/mid-sized side logos, all logos & lettering were white

-FULL Red P:  the same as Full, but with a red P inside the PC logos.

-FULL Orange C:  the same as Full, but with an orange C inside the PC logos

-PARTIAL 1: road name, nose logos, cab numbers
-PARTIAL 2: road name, cab numbers
-PARTIAL 3: nose logos, cab numbers
-PARTIAL 4: nose logos, cab numbers, side logos
-PARTIAL 5: cab numbers

-PARTIAL 6:  any versions of the partial variations, but using the red P or orange C logos.

The following is a list of color type variations:

-Ex-NEW HAVEN: orange or red body (McGinnis or Alpert Schemes) w/ PC markings (any variation). All NH engines had new numbers applied, since they were not previously numbered in preparation for the PC merger.

-Ex-PRR: Tuscan red (usually E-units), DGLE green. All PRR locomotives received similar roster numbers as did NYC units, to prepare for the PC merger before 1968. Therefore some units kept their original gold/yellow PRR cab numbers, with PC markings.

-Ex-New York Central: gray (E-units), black. All NYC locomotives received similar roster numbers as did PRR units, to prepare for the PC merger before 1968. Therefore some units kept their original white NYC style cab numbers, with PC markings.

-Ex-Lehigh Valley: PC applied their road name to the hood of an RS2 in order to use for scrap-trade material, while still in LV paint. They did the same to a few other types of locomotives.

-Ex-D&RGW: PC received F-units from the Rio Grande they were originally going to use as trade in bait. However they found a few of the As & Bs to be still functional. They put 2 As & 2 Bs in service, and they wore the original yellow, silver, & black paint, with PC numbers & logos applied for a few years before finally being painted in PC black.

Although the PC paint scheme was a great one, with a futuristic logo & lettering fonts, and a basic but great black scheme, to those who didn’t like the straight-forward scheme, a little variety of various colors could be found within the PC system.  There are many books, publications, DVDs, & other sources available out there for those who would like to see actual pictures & more.  We have even found even more variations never seen before during our research.  With the PC, anything was possible, and new variations are found all the time!

What was your favorite PC paint scheme?

 

1-WP

 

© Copyright 2015, 1-West Productions™/PJ.  Duplication Prohibited.   Sources used for this information were:  Penn Central Power, Penn Central Power 1-4, Penn Central In Color 1-4- Yanosey;  Penn Central System Bi-Annual- Reid;  A Sampling of Penn Central- Taylor;  The Wreck of the Penn Central- Daughen & Binzen;  original Penn Central RR Posts employees magazines;  various PC DVDs by Green Frog, Clear Block, Revelation Video, & other books & photographs with PC locomotives.

 

 

 

N&W, NS, Penn Central, Penn Central, Railroad General Discussions, Railroad History, SOU

Penn Central, NYC, PRR, NH, & Conrail

1 Comment

The Penn Central, NYC, PRR, NH, & Conrail- one topic I’m really familiar with is the Penn Central Railroad. I’ve written extensively on this subject for some years, and even have another website dedicated to this railroad. Although there were many people who despised that railroad, it still played a very important part of keeping America’s economy flowing, regardless of its mis-haps. Those of us in the younger generations appreciate the PC for what it was, and the very wide range of modeling that can be done with it.

The PC was the joining of the New York Central, Pennsylvania, and later the New Haven Railroads. The NYC & PRR were joined in 1968, and the NH in 1969. The NYC and PRR were great competitors originally, with parallel routes. The NH was considered mostly a passenger road, with some TOFC trains, and the PC did not want to include them in their merger. However the ICC required them to take in the NH, if they wanted the ICC to approve the PC merger in the first place.

The new PC at the time seemed like it was going to work in the beginning, then hard times came. Unfortunately many factors happened, which caused the merger to fail in 1970. Factors were corrupt management, investments spread too wide, government regulations on rates that the railroad was allowed to charge to its customers, competition with trucks and air, deferred maintenance of facilities, tracks, and equipment, weather-related catastrophes (hurricanes, floods, severe winters, etc.), lack of freight cars, locomotives, and cabooses, parallel routes, and the government not allowing the railroads to abandon older secondary routes not needed by the railroads throughout the country.

Many would say that the PC was the only railroad merger in the States to have paralleled routes that failed or plagued with problems, and the only railroad to have dirty and run-down equipment, loosing money everyday, bad track, and corruption. But history and many good sources say that was not the case. Many US railroad mergers and companies, especially in the Midwest and East were in the same trouble. In fact, the ONLY Class 1 railroad that had fewer problems, especially during this time was the Santa Fe. Also the only merger that actually worked with fewer problems was the NS merger between the N&W and SOU later in the 1980s!

Finally the government had to step in to help, or an economic catastrophe was on the way. Conrail was formed and took over the PC, EL, RDG, LV, & CNJ- all that were in the same situations as the PC. CR grew a profit in the 1980s, and was taken over by NS & CSX in the late 1990s.

The PC is a favorite to many in modeling, studying, photo collecting, and more.  They had many paint scheme variations, colors, equipment types, unique colors, great facilties, yards, and more.  The PC was not a separate company that came and took over the NYC, PRR, and NH- they were simply the combining of these roads, just under a new name. And some say the PC lived on even under CR, since most of CR’s operations, tracks, equipment, personnel were PC. These days the PC is getting more difficult to see, as equipment is being replaced, things changed, etc. May the PC live on!

DVDs to check out:

-You can see some history about the PC on Revelation’s Penn Central DVD HERE.  Just one of many PC DVDs out there that has material the others do not have.

-Also a DVD about the NYC (by Revelation) HERE

-Many great DVDs with CONRAIL can be found in Keith’s Trains Series™ HERE

 

(Sources one should read that backup these facts are:  Wreck Of The Penn Central, Merging Lines, Penn Central Power, just to name a few!)

© Copyright 2015 PJ/1-WP™