About Great Northern paint schemes...?

Question

The GN rolling stock was probably the most colorful. My question is, after the formation of the Burlington Northern in 1970, about how long were the cars of the last GN paint schemes out rolling around before sporting their new green, black and white BN livery?

I know I was seeing SP&S cars as late as into the mid 80's, but I was wondering about the GN.

Thanks for the help.

Answer 1

Bob,

Are you talking about the "Big Sky Blue" scheme?  I think GN adopted it in 1967 and, of course, BN came around just a few years later in 1970.  I think in that time they got some passenger equipment and locomotives painted in the new scheme but since it was only out for a few years before BN I think most was repainted by the late 1970s to early 1980s.  Anyway, like yourself, I'm not exactly sure when the last GN-painted locomotive or car was repainted in BN green but the latest I ever saw photos of them was the early to mid 1980s.

Answer 2

Most of Great Northern's coaches wound up in New Jersey and finished their careers wearing GN colors, BN colors, NJDOT colors, or NJ Transit colors. A bunch of the "Jersey Builder" coaches are preserved for excursion and other work by the URHS. However some of them fell into a state of disrepair that is now being corrected.

Answer 3

Bob I still see one every once in a while but it's rare.Most were gone by the mid 80's.Kinda like seeing Herbie chalked on a boxcar they just kinda faded away into history.

Answer 4

I find your experience to be quite interesting, I myself had experienced a very similar situaton when Southern Railway and Norfolk & Western merged to become  Norfolk Southern Corp. back in the middle or later 80's. I still see various freight cars painted for both of the fore-mentioned companies.